Lady Gaga Rio bomb plot ‘motivated by sexual orientation’ say police

Brazilian police have said that two people arrested in connection with an alleged plot to detonate explosives at a Lady Gaga concert in Rio de Janeiro were ‘motivated by sexual orientation’.

Lady Gaga attracted an estimated 2.5 million fans at Brazil’s Copacabana Beach while performing her latest studio album Mayhem and other hits over the weekend (3 May) at the biggest show of the pop superstar’s career to date.

According to Associated Press, the free-to-attend concert was the target of an alleged bomb plot, with two people having now been arrested in connection.

The publication reports that Felipe Cury, secretary of the Rio de Janeiro police, said authorities believe the suspects sought to target the LGBTQ+ community in Brazil.

“They were clearly saying that they were planning an attack at Lady Gaga’s concert motivated by sexual orientation,” Cury told a press conference on Sunday (4 May).

Rio Police chief Luiz Lima reportedly said that the group disseminated hate speech and violent content online “aimed at gaining notoriety in order to attract more viewers, more participants — most of them teenagers, many of them children.”

But even though the authorities said they arrested the suspects in the hours leading up to the Lady Gaga concert, the show went ahead as planned. The police reportedly said nothing publicly at the time to “avoid panic” and “the distortion of information”.

A spokesperson for Lady Gaga said that her team “learned about this alleged threat via media reports this 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 statement added: “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.”

According to Reuters, the police said in a statement, “The suspects were recruiting participants, including minors, to carry out coordinated attacks using improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails.”

The Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro state, working in coordination with the Justice Ministry, said the plot was orchestrated by a group promoting hate speech and the radicalization of teenagers, including self-harm and violent content as a form of social belonging.

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