Taylor Swift Postpones Rio Show After Fan’s Death

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Taylor Swift postponed an Eras Tour concert in Rio de Janeiro Saturday after a 23-year-old fan died throughout her Friday evening present, based on 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 mentioned in a handwritten notice posted on her Instagram account. “The safety and well being of my fans, fellow performers, and crew has to and always will come first.”
Buda Mendes/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
The reason for dying for Ana Clara Benevides Machado, the younger lady who sought medical attention at Nilton Santos Olympic Stadium throughout Friday’s present, has not but been introduced. The workplace of Rio’s public prosecutor opened a prison investigation and mentioned Benevides’ body was being examined.
Benevides’ dying shook 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 pictures and movies each step of the way in which, relations informed on-line information web site G1.
Fans and politicians reacted to her dying with outrage, speculating it was linked to excessive warmth.
After she died, concertgoers complained they weren’t allowed to take water into the stadium regardless of hovering temperatures that reached greater than 39 levels Celsius (102.4 levels Fahrenheit). As temperatures continued to rise Saturday and with two extra reveals to go, federal authorities introduced that free water would now be made obtainable at live shows and different massive occasions.
One of Benevides’ associates, who additionally went to the live performance, informed native shops they’d each been given water whereas ready to enter the stadium.
In a handwritten notice shared on her social media, Swift mentioned 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 lady.
The present’s organizer, Time4Fun, mentioned on Instagram that paramedics attended to Benevides after she reported feeling unwell. She was taken to a first-aid middle after which to a hospital, the place she died an hour later, the assertion from the Brazilian stay leisure firm mentioned.
Fans who attended the Friday present mentioned they weren’t allowed to carry water bottles into the stadium regardless that Rio and most of Brazil have had record-breaking temperatures this week amid a dangerous and lasting heat wave. The daytime high in Rio on Friday was 39.1 levels Celsius (102.4 levels Fahrenheit), nevertheless it felt a lot hotter.
Apparent temperature — a mix of temperature and humidity — hit 59 C (138 F) Friday morning in Rio, the very best index ever recorded there.
Elizabeth Morin, 26, who not too long ago moved to Rio from Los Angeles, described “sauna-like” circumstances contained in the stadium.
“It was extremely hot. My hair got so wet from sweat as soon as I came in,” she mentioned. “There was a point at which I had to check my breathing to make sure I wasn’t going to pass out.”
Morin mentioned she drank loads of water however noticed “a good amount of people looking distressed” and others “yelling for water.” She mentioned she was capable of get water from the sidelines of the realm she was standing in, however that water was loads tougher to entry from different elements of the stadium, “especially if you were concerned about losing your specific position.”
During the present, Swift paused her efficiency and asked from the stage for water to be delivered to a gaggle of people that had efficiently caught the singer’s attention, based on Morin.
“They were holding up their phones saying ‘We need water,’” she recalled.
Two different concetgoers interviewed by The Associated Press mentioned they witnessed folks feeling unwell from the warmth in the course of the present.
Justice Minister Flávio Dino mentioned on X, previously referred to as Twitter, that “water bottles for personal use, in suitable material, will be allowed” at live shows and festivals and that present producers should present free and simply accessible consuming water.
Swift has two extra reveals scheduled in Rio, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. State prosecutors mentioned in a press release they’d “monitor measures that seek to avoid new problems and guarantee the protection of the health of the public.”
Before the present, Benevides posted a video of herself on Instagram carrying a Taylor Swift T-shirt and friendship bracelets, looking for shade underneath an umbrella whereas ready in line to enter the stadium. She had flown in to look at Swift carry out, taking a airplane for the primary time in her life.
In a video she despatched to relations and broadcast by TV channel Globo News, she informed them: “Mom, look at the plane, it’s moving. Mom, I’m on the plane. My God in heaven! I’m happy!”
Like her, hundreds of followers waited hours within the solar earlier than being allowed inside.
She informed 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’ buddy, Daniele Menin, who attended the live performance together with her, informed on-line information web site G1 that her buddy handed out initially of the live performance, as Swift carried out her second tune, “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 informed G1.
Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes mentioned on X the “loss of a young woman’s life … is unacceptable.”
While authorities are investigating the circumstances of the dying, Paes wrote, the municipality will demand Saturday that the present’s manufacturing firm present new water distribution factors, extra brigades and ambulances, and advance entrance to the present by one hour.
“I’m not going to be able to speak about this from stage because I feel overwhelmed by grief when I even try to talk about it,” Taylo Swift wrote. “I want to say now I feel this loss deeply and my broken heart goes out to her family and friends.”
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