Madonna Crushes Personal Concert Record with 1.6 Million Fans in Rio

Leave it to Madonna to go out with a bang ... that's how you'd have to describe the insane scene in Brazil when she closed out her world tour with more than a million people in the sand.

A reported 1.6 million Madonna lovers turned out for the free concert on Rio de Janeiro's famed Copacabana Beach ... and it was a total spectacle. At one point, the massive crowd actually got in sync enough to take over singing "Like A Virgin."

The final night of Madge's tour, which got off to a rocky start last October, turned out to be a milestone for her. The sea of Rio fans destroyed the previous record for largest Madonna concert ... which was a measly 130,000 for her 1987 Paris show.

She's following in some legendary footsteps in the Rio sand ... in similar fashion, the Rolling Stones rocked the same beach with 1.2 million fans in 2006, and Rod Stewart performed the largest free rock concert ever in 1994 when 4 million people turned out for his New Year's Eve show.

Remember, Madonna's tour was supposed to start last summer, but had to be postponed when she nearly died from an infection. She made a pretty remarkable bounce back to launch the tour a few months later.

The tour has had plenty of highlights ... including a guest appearance from Ricky Martin , who got a little too aroused by the action onstage.

There was also the night ... Madonna mistakenly told a wheelchair-bound fan to stand up and dance. Oops.

MASSIVE SHOW!!

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All in all, we'd say Madonna can take a bow ... after pulling off the tour that almost didn't happen at all.