Taylor Swift postponed an Eras Tour live performance in Rio de Janeiro Saturday after a 23-year-old fan died throughout her Friday evening present, in keeping with a message posted on the singer’s Instagram.
“I’m writing this from my dressing room in the stadium. The decision has been made to postpone tonight’s show due to the extreme temperatures in Rio,” the singer stated in a handwritten word on Instagram. “The safety and well being of my fans, fellow performers, and crew has to and always will come first.”
The reason for loss of life for Ana Clara Benevides Machado, the younger girl who sought medical consideration at Nilton Santos Olympic Stadium throughout Friday’s present, has not but been introduced. The workplace of Rio’s public prosecutor opened a felony investigation and stated Benevides’ physique was being examined.
Benevides’ loss of life shook many individuals in Brazil. She had taken her first flight ever to journey from the nation’s center-west area to Rio to see her favourite musician. She additionally created a WhatsApp group to maintain her household up to date, sending photographs and movies each step of the way in which, relations advised on-line information website G1.
Followers and politicians reacted to her loss of life with outrage, speculating it was linked to excessive warmth.
Concertgoers complained they weren’t allowed to take water into the stadium regardless of the stifling climate. As temperatures continued to rise Saturday and with two extra exhibits to go on the time, federal authorities introduced that free water would now be made accessible at concert events and different massive occasions.
Considered one of Benevides’ buddies, who additionally went to the live performance, advised native shops that they had each been given water whereas ready to enter the stadium.
In a earlier assertion shared on her social media Saturday morning, Swift stated she had a “shattered heart.”
“There’s very little information I have other than the fact that she was so incredibly beautiful and far too young,” the singer wrote of the younger girl.
The present’s organizer, Time4Fun, stated on Instagram that paramedics attended to Benevides after she reported feeling unwell. She was taken to a first-aid heart after which to a hospital, the place she died an hour later, the assertion from the Brazilian stay leisure firm stated.
Followers who attended the Friday present stated they weren’t allowed to carry water bottles into the stadium although Rio and most of Brazil have had record-breaking temperatures this week amid a harmful and lasting warmth wave. The daytime excessive in Rio on Friday was 39.1 levels Celsius (102.4 levels Fahrenheit), but it surely felt a lot hotter.
Obvious temperature — a mixture of temperature and humidity — hit 59 C (138 F) Friday morning in Rio, the best index ever recorded there.
Elizabeth Morin, 26, who just lately moved to Rio from Los Angeles, described “sauna-like” situations contained in the stadium.
“It was extremely hot. My hair got so wet from sweat as soon as I came in,” she stated. “There was a point at which I had to check my breathing to make sure I wasn’t going to pass out.”
Morin stated she drank loads of water however noticed “a good amount of people looking distressed” and others “yelling for water.” She stated she was capable of get water from the sidelines of the realm she was standing in, however that water was rather a lot tougher to entry from different elements of the stadium, “especially if you were concerned about losing your specific position.”
Throughout the present, Swift paused her efficiency and requested from the stage for water to be dropped at a bunch of people that had efficiently caught the singer’s consideration, in keeping with Morin.
“They were holding up their phones saying ‘We need water,’” she recalled.
Two different concertgoers interviewed by The Related Press stated they witnessed individuals feeling unwell from the warmth throughout the present.
On her solution to Rio, Benevides despatched a video to relations that was broadcast by TV channel Globo Information, telling them: “Mom, look at the plane, it’s moving. Mom, I’m on the plane. My God in heaven! I’m happy!”
Then earlier than the live performance, she posted a video of herself on Instagram sporting a Taylor Swift T-shirt and friendship bracelets, in search of shade below an umbrella whereas ready in line to enter the stadium.
Like her, 1000’s of followers waited hours within the solar earlier than being allowed inside.
She advised her followers whereas fanning her face that she’d arrived at 11 a.m. — the present started round 7:30 p.m. — and was “still in the mess.”
Benevides’ pal, Daniele Menin, who attended the live performance together with her, advised on-line information website G1 that her pal handed out firstly of the live performance, as Swift carried out her second track, “Cruel Summer.”
“We always said that when (Taylor Swift) came to Brazil we would find a way to go. The ticket was very expensive, but we still found a way,” Menin advised G1.
Justice Minister Flávio Dino stated on X, previously generally known as Twitter, that going ahead in Brazil, “water bottles for personal use, in suitable material, will be allowed” at concert events and festivals and that present producers should present free and simply accessible consuming water.
Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes wrote on X that the “loss of a young woman’s life … is unacceptable” and demanded extra brigades and ambulances at future exhibits.
Nonetheless, the live performance was postponed.
“We are on the train. And everyone is so disappointed,” stated Hely Olivares, a 41 year-old Venezuelan who had traveled from Panama to see the artist.
Earlier than suspending the live performance, Swift wrote on Instagram that she wouldn’t deal with the loss of life from stage “because I feel overwhelmed by grief when I even try to talk about it.”
“I want to say now I feel this loss deeply and my broken heart goes out to her family and friends,” she stated.