Madonna plays to 1.6 million fans on Copacabana Beach

Madonna performed to her largest ever live audience on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Saturday night.

On the final night of her career-spanning Celebration Tour she performed a free concert on Rio's famous beach, with the number in attendance reaching 1.6 million, according to the city's tourism agency.

She began the show telling the crowd,“Here we are in the most beautiful place in the world. This place is magic,” and launching into her 1998 hit Nothing Really Matters.

She performed many of her hits, sparking huge singalongs to Like a Virgin and Like a Prayer. She was also joined on stage by Brazilian artists Anitta and Pabilo Vittar.

Madonna's gig beat the 1.2 million the Rolling Stones performed there to in 2006, but was short of the estimated record 4 million Rod Stewart played to in 1994.

Her previous largest live concert crowd was 130,000 fans in Paris, France in 1987.