Taylor Swift postpones Rio de Janeiro present on account of “excessive climate” following fan’s loss of life

Taylor Swift postponed an Eras Tour live performance in Rio de Janeiro Saturday after a 23-year-old fan died throughout her Friday night time present, in response to a message posted on the singer’s Instagram.

“I am scripting this from my dressing room within the stadium. The choice has been made to postpone tonight’s present because of the excessive temperatures in Rio,” the singer stated in a handwritten note on Instagram. “The security and effectively being of my followers, fellow performers, and crew has to and all the time 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 legal 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 images and movies each step of the way in which, members of the family instructed 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 out there at concert events and different giant occasions.

One in every of Benevides’ mates, who additionally went to the live performance, instructed native shops they’d 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 coronary heart.”

“There’s little or no info I’ve aside from the truth that she was so extremely stunning and much too younger,” 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 dwell leisure firm stated.

Followers who attended the Friday present stated they weren’t allowed to convey water bottles into the stadium regardless that 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), nevertheless it 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” circumstances contained in the stadium.

“It was extraordinarily scorching. My hair bought so moist from sweat as quickly as I got here in,” she stated. “There was a degree at which I needed to test my respiration to ensure I wasn’t going to cross out.”

Morin stated she drank loads of water however noticed “a great quantity of individuals wanting distressed” and others “yelling for water.” She stated she was capable of get water from the sidelines of the world she was standing in, however that water was lots more durable to entry from different components of the stadium, “particularly when you have been involved about dropping your particular place.”

In the course of the present, Swift paused her efficiency and requested from the stage for water to be delivered to a gaggle of people that had efficiently caught the singer’s consideration, in response to Morin.

“They have been holding up their telephones saying ‘We’d like water,'” she recalled.

Two different concertgoers interviewed by The Related Press stated they witnessed folks feeling unwell from the warmth throughout the present.

On her solution to Rio, Benevides despatched a video to members of the family that was broadcast by TV channel Globo Information, telling them: “Mother, have a look at the aircraft, it is transferring. Mother, I am on the aircraft. My God in heaven! I am pleased!”

Then earlier than the live performance, she posted a video of herself on Instagram carrying a Taylor Swift T-shirt and friendship bracelets, in search of shade beneath an umbrella whereas ready in line to enter the stadium.

Like her, hundreds of followers waited hours within the solar earlier than being allowed inside.

She instructed her followers whereas fanning her face that she’d arrived at 11 a.m. — the present started round 7:30 p.m. — and was “nonetheless within the mess.”

Benevides’ buddy, Daniele Menin, who attended the live performance along with her, instructed on-line information website G1 that her buddy handed out firstly of the live performance, as Swift carried out her second track, “Merciless Summer time.”

“We all the time stated that when (Taylor Swift) got here to Brazil we might discover a solution to go. The ticket was very costly, however we nonetheless discovered a manner,” Menin instructed G1.

Justice Minister Flávio Dino stated on X, previously referred to as Twitter, that going ahead in Brazil, “water bottles for private use, in appropriate materials, shall 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 “lack of a younger girl’s life … is unacceptable” and demanded extra brigades and ambulances at future exhibits.

Nonetheless, the live performance was postponed.

“We’re on the practice. And everyone seems to be so disillusioned,” 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 “as a result of I really feel overwhelmed by grief after I even attempt to discuss it.”

“I wish to say now I really feel this loss deeply and my damaged coronary heart goes out to her household and mates,” she stated.