Bomb threat at Lady Gaga Rio de Janiero show thwarted

A planned bombing at a Lady Gaga concert in Brazil on Saturday night was foiled and a suspect is in custody in connection to the failed plot, Brazilian authorities said.

Unidentified suspects were “virtually recruiting participants to carry out attacks” using improvised explosive devices, according to the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police. The perpetrators allegedly planned to gain notoriety on social networks through the bombing, authorities said.

The person allegedly responsible for the plan is in custody and a teenager has been detained in the matter, police said.

The civil police’s intelligence unit was first alerted to the scheme, and search and seizure warrants were subsequently obtained for multiple areas in Brazil, police said.

A spokesperson for Lady Gaga said the singer’s team learned about the alleged threat through media reports Sunday morning.

“Prior to and during the show, there were no known safety concerns, nor any communication from the police or authorities to Lady Gaga regarding any potential risks,” the spokesperson said. “Her team worked closely with law enforcement throughout the planning and execution of the concert and all parties were confident in the safety measures in place.”

Lady Gaga played at the famed Copacabana venue as part of her new “Mayhem” tour. She announced the show last month on her Instagram, saying she was excited to return after having to cancel her last show in Brazil due to a hip injury during her “Born This Way Ball” tour.

“It’s a great honor to be asked to sing for Rio — for my whole career the fans in Brazil have been part of the lifeblood of the little monsters,” the singer wrote.

She added that she was “dying to come perform” for her Brazilian “little monsters,” which is the nickname for Lady Gaga fans.

The free concert on Saturday was attended by more than 2 million people, according to the .

It could be the largest attendance for a female artist, according to Variety, beating Madonna’s draw of 1.6 million people at the Copacabana beach last year.

It falls shy of the Guinness World Record for the largest free concert, which was also at the beach venue. Rod Stewart’s performance at the Copacabana in 1994 for New Year’s Eve brought in an estimated 3.5 million revelers.

Rio’s security plan included the presence of 3,300 military and 1,500 police officers, and 400 military firefighters.

The show was supported by the local government in the hopes of boosting economic activity between big events in Rio, such as Carnival and next month’s Saint John’s Day celebrations.

More than 500,000 tourists tourists flocked to the city to see Lady Gaga, Rio’s City Hall said in a statement on Friday.

News of the failed attempt on Lady Gaga’s performance comes less than a year after Taylor Swift was forced to cancel her shows in Vienna due to a security threat.

Austrian authorities said they were alerted to plans to bomb Swift’s “The Eras Tour” performances in the city in a terror-related attack. Swift opted to cancel the concerts and waited until the conclusion of her European leg of the tour.

“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” Swift said weeks later. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”

Swift had previously expressed anxiety about keeping people safe during her live performances, citing the 2017 bombing at Ariana Grande’s concert in Manchester, England, and the 2017 music festival shooting in Las Vegas.