Girl Gaga live performance bomb plot focused queer neighborhood, say Brazilian police after arresting two individuals

Folks attend Girl Gaga’s open live performance at Copacabana Seashore in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Might 3, 2025
| Picture Credit score: Tita Barros

Police in Brazil stated on Sunday that two individuals have been arrested in reference to an alleged plot to detonate explosives at a free Girl Gaga live performance in Rio de Janeiro.

The Rio occasion on Saturday was the most important present of the pop star’s profession, attracting an estimated 2.5 million followers to Copacabana Seashore and had crowds screaming and dancing alongside.

Felipe Cury, secretary of the Rio police, stated authorities believed the suspects sought to focus on Brazil’s LGBTQ neighborhood. “They had been clearly saying that they had been planning an assault at Girl Gaga’s live performance motivated by sexual orientation,” Cury informed a press convention on Sunday.

Rio Police chief Luiz Lima stated the group disseminated hate speech and violent content material on-line “geared toward gaining notoriety in an effort to appeal to extra viewers, extra individuals — most of them youngsters, lots of them kids.”

Folks collect to attend Girl Gaga’s open live performance, in Copacabana seaside in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Might 3, 2025.
| Picture Credit score:
PILAR OLIVARES

Whilst Brazilian authorities stated they arrested suspects within the hours earlier than Girl Gaga’s present, the occasion went forward with out disruption, main some to query the seriousness of the menace. Severe safety considerations sometimes lead organisers to cancel such huge occasions — as occurred with Taylor Swift’s concert events in Vienna final 12 months.

Police stated stated nothing in regards to the alleged plot on the time to in an effort to “keep away from panic” and “the distortion of knowledge.”

A spokesperson for Girl Gaga stated the pop star and her crew “realized about this alleged menace by way of media stories this morning. Previous to and throughout the present, there have been no recognized security considerations, nor any communication from the police or authorities to Girl Gaga relating to any potential dangers.”

The assertion added: “Her crew labored carefully with legislation enforcement all through the planning and execution of the live performance and all events had been assured within the security measures in place.”

Safety was tight at Saturday’s live performance, with 5,200 army and law enforcement officials deployed to the seaside the place followers had been reveling within the pop singer’s basic hits like “Born This Method,” which grew to become one thing of an LGBTQ anthem after its 2011 launch.

Girl Gaga performs throughout her free live performance on Copacabana Seashore in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Might 3, 2025.
| Picture Credit score:
SILVIA IZQUIERDO

Authorities arrested two individuals in reference to the alleged plot — a person described because the group’s chief within the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul on unlawful weapons possession fees, and a young person in Rio on baby pornography fees. Police didn’t elaborate on their precise roles within the plot or on how the group got here to focus on Girl Gaga’s free live performance.

“These concerned had been recruiting individuals, together with youngsters, to hold out built-in assaults utilizing improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails,” police stated.

The Justice Ministry stated that it decided the group posed a “danger to public order.” It stated the group falsely introduced themselves on-line as “Little Monsters” — Girl Gaga’s nickname for her followers — in an effort to lure teeangers into “networks with violent and self-destructive content material.”

Throughout a sequence of raids on the houses of 15 suspects throughout a number of Brazilian states, authorities confiscated telephones and different digital units. Though police stated they believed home made bombs had been meant to be used within the deliberate assault, there was no point out of the raids turning up any weapons or explosive materials.

Cury stated one of many suspects, whose house was raided within the metropolis of Macaé, close to Rio, “had a spiritual motivation” and “claimed the singer (Girl Gaga) was a Satanist.”

Girl Gaga has expressed gratitude for the big crowd in an Instagram put up that stated nothing of the alleged plot.

“Nothing might put together me for the sensation I had throughout final evening’s present — absolutely the delight and pleasure I felt singing for the individuals of Brazil,” she wrote. “The sight of the gang throughout my opening songs took my breath away. Your coronary heart shines so shiny, your tradition is so vibrant and particular, I hope you understand how grateful I’m to have shared this historic second with you.”

Her free seaside live performance stood out at a time of surging ticket costs for reside music around the globe as concert-goers pay budget-busting prices to see their favourite artists. Final month she carried out at Coachella Valley music competition in California, the place tickets fetched upwards of $600 for one weekend.

Rio has carried out this earlier than — final Might, famous person Madonna carried out the finale to her newest world tower for some 1.6 million followers on the sprawling sands of Copacabana Seashore.