Rio de Janeiro, Feb 18 (EFE).– The front man for the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, said Thursday that he is happy to return to Rio de Janeiro, where the iconic British rock band will offer its fourth concert on the weekend, 10 years after giving a free performance here that attracted 1.2 million fans.

“I’m very happy to be in Rio de Janeiro once again. I can hardly wait to see you Saturday night,” said Jagger in a Twitter message in Portuguese.

The Saturday concert at the Maracana Stadium will be the first of four that the Stones will offer in Brazil, with two others in Sao Paulo and another in Porto Alegre on the agenda as part of their “Latin America Ole Tour,” which has already taken the band to Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.

The group performed in Rio for the first time in 1995 before 70,000 people at the Maracana and returned in 1998 to appear before 30,000 fans at the Sambodromo.

But the most noteworthy concert that the Rolling Stones have given in Rio was in 2006 at Copacabana Beach, when they performed free for some 1.2 million people.

Some 65,000 tickets have already been sold for the Saturday event, at which Jagger and bandmates Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood will perform some of their greatest hits, including “Gimme Shelter,” “Satisfaction,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Start Me Up” and “Miss You.”

The band arrived in Rio on Wednesday night and is staying at the Copacabana Palace luxury hotel.

According to photos posted on the social networks, on Wednesday night Jagger met up with popular Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso. EFE