Rio de Janeiro • Saturday, April 21, 1990

About

The Maracana Stadium in the 90s: that has to be a special show. We know all the stories — the rain, rain, rain, go away, come another washing day. [A hurricane struck Rio, flooding the stadium; the Brazilians said the show would have to be cancelled but Paul insisted ‘the rain will stop’. The weather forecasters said the driving rain would not stop. At 9.40 pm, as Paul prepared to lead the band on stage, the rain stopped.] And there’s me saying ‘Don’t worry, it’ll stop.’ Then it did, 10 minutes before the show — and all my crew have been praying to me ever since! There were 184,000 people in the audience, which set a new world record — although we suspect there were more because there were 5,000 people behind the stage, who couldn’t see anything except me getting changed. Which was worth the ticket for that. And, apparently, there were people doing rude things in the audience, which I still want to see the video of. All of that: the footballers getting mad at us for ruining their pitch. But a big record, which still stands. A great show — people say to me ‘Weren’t you nervous?’ But because we’d been on tour so long by then, we knew it although I must admit that Wix and Robbie did have two brandies before they went on to steady their nerves. But I can’t do that, because I forget the words if I have a drink. So I just have a smell of theirs. Magnificent, great show.

Paul McCartney, in the 2003 Back To The World tour book – talking about his favorite gigs

Last updated on August 12, 2019

Maracana Stadium

This was the 2nd concert played at Maracana Stadium.

A total of 3 concerts have been played there • 1990 • Apr 20th • Apr 21st • 2023 • Dec 16th

Setlist for the soundcheck

The setlist for this soundcheck is incomplete, or we have not be able to confirm in an accurate way that this was the setlist. If you have any clue, pls let us know and leave a comment.

Setlist for the concert