<\/p>\n
Two million people did not show up on Copacabana Beach just to hear \u201cHips Don\u2019t Lie.\u201d<\/p>\n
They showed up for the whole argument.<\/p>\n
Shakira\u2019s free Rio de Janeiro concert put her on one of pop music\u2019s loudest stages \u2014 the same shoreline recently used to turn Madonna and Lady Gaga into citywide events<\/a>. Rio officials estimated the crowd at roughly 2 million people<\/a>. The city-backed Todo Mundo no Rio concert is also expected to inject about 800 million reais, roughly $161 million, into the local economy.<\/p>\n Copacabana has become a civic event with choreography, and this one hits harder because Shakira\u2019s career has never been a clean pop coronation. It has been sold in pieces: the teenage failure, the Latin crossover gamble, the breakup album, the tax headlines, the woman who had to keep proving that global did not mean temporary.<\/p>\n Copacabana made all of that look small.<\/p>\n