Singer Lady Gaga on thursday played soccer and sang with children in a slum in Rio de Janeiro, where she is set to perform this week. Lady Gaga visited Cantagalo, a favela (shantytown) located on a hill in Rio's Copacabana neighbourhood just three blocks from the luxury beach hotel where she is staying. The New York-born pop performer was outfitted in a light Japanese-style print robe, wore a pink wig and long false orange fingernails, according to media reports.

She played barefoot soccer with some of the kids in the slum, sang her number Born This Way with dozens of the children and familiarized herself firsthand with the social project being undertaken in the area by Brazil's Globo television in association with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Gaga will sing on friday in Rio and two days later she will perform in Sao Paulo.