Thursday, May 9

Taylor Swift postpones Rio de Janeiro present, citing file warmth a day after fan dies throughout live performance

RIO DE JANEIROTaylor 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’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 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 dying 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 mentioned Benevides‘ physique was being examined.



Benevides‘ death shook many people in Brazil. She had taken her first flight ever to travel from the country’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 best way, members of the family instructed on-line information website G1.

Fans and politicians reacted to her dying 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 obtainable at concert events and different massive occasions.

One of Benevides’ buddies, who additionally went to the live performance, instructed 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 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 girl.

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 heart after which to a hospital, the place she died an hour later, the assertion from the Brazilian reside 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 harmful and lasting warmth wave. The daytime excessive in Rio on Friday was 102.4 levels Fahrenheit, but it surely felt a lot hotter.

Apparent temperature — a mix of temperature and humidity — hit 138 F Friday morning in Rio, the best index ever recorded there.

Elizabeth Morin, 26, who lately 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 in a position to get water from the sidelines of the realm she was standing in, however that water was quite a bit 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 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 were holding up their phones saying ‘We need water,’” she recalled.

Two different concertgoers interviewed by The Associated Press mentioned they witnessed individuals feeling unwell from the warmth through the present.

On her technique to Rio, Benevides despatched a video to members of the family that was broadcast by TV channel Globo News, 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 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 “still in the mess.”

Benevides‘ good friend, Daniele Menin, who attended the live performance along with her, instructed on-line information website G1 that her good friend handed out firstly of the live performance, as Swift carried out her second music, “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 instructed G1.

Justice Minister Flávio Dino mentioned on X, previously referred to 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.

Still, the live performance was postponed.

“We are on the train. And everyone is so disappointed,” mentioned Hely Olivares, a 41-year-old Venezuelan who had traveled from Panama to see the artist.

Before suspending the live performance, Swift wrote on Instagram that she wouldn’t deal with the dying 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 mentioned.

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