Taylor Swift cancels second Brazil gig after fan's death
- 20 Nov 2023
Taylor Swift’s second Eras Tour show in Brazil has been postponed after one of the singer’s young fans died from a cardiac arrest during her first performance in the country.
Swift announced the news on her Instagram story on Saturday afternoon. “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 safety and well-being of my fans, fellow performers and crew always has to come first,” she wrote.
Temperatures in Rio de Janeiro were above 90˚F (33˚C) at the time of the post. It did not specify a new date for the show.
Earlier in the day, the show’s organisers T4F announced that in light of the ongoing heat wave, water stations would be provided at the Nilton Santos stadium for the second show that night.
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The announcement came after T4F confirmed the death of a fan, named by Brazilian daily newspaper Folha De S Paulo as 23-year-old Ana Clara Benevides.
Their statement read: “It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Ana Clara Benevides Machado, 23. Last night, Ana Clara felt unwell and was promptly attended to by the team of firefighters and paramedics, being taken to the medical centre at the Nilton Santos Stadium for first aid protocol.
“Given the situation, the medical team chose to transfer her to Salgado Filho Hospital, where, after almost an hour of emergency care, she unfortunately died,” they continued. “To the family and friends of Ana Clara Benevides, our sincere condolences.”
In the wake of her death, several Swift fans are using social media to highlight conditions inside the packed Nilton Santos stadium on Friday (17 November).
Audience members can repeatedly be heard chanting for water during the show, as the apparent temperature reportedly rose to 60˚C, in videos posted on Instagram and X/Twitter.
These fan-shared clips also showed Swift stopping her performance multiple times to ask for bottles of water to be distributed among the 60,000-strong crowd.
“Sorry, it’s just that it’s very hot, so when somebody says they need water, when it’s this hot, they really need it,” the 33-year-old singer can be heard saying in one video. “We don’t need to chant, it’s totally fine. We just need to get water to them.”
Brazil is currently in the grip of an intense heat wave, with the “feels like” temperature recorded at 58.5C on Tuesday (14 November).
Earlier this week. red alerts were issued for nearly 3,000 towns and cities across the South American nation, as over a hundred million people have reportedly been impacted by the extreme weather.
According to the Folha news report, Benevides arrived at the venue at 11am and fainted shortly before Swift’s show began at 7.30pm. She was reportedly resuscitated before being transferred to a local hospital, where she died from a cardiac arrest.
It was also reported that 1,000 people fainted at the show on Friday, according to firefighters’ unofficial estimates, with several people allegedly becoming dehydrated and falling sick.
After Benevides’s death, several fans took to social media to urge organisers to lift the ban on bringing water bottles inside the venue, in light of the unprecedented heatwave.
One person wrote that “they should be passing [water] out for free in that weather” on Instagram, joining several social media users asking for the venue policy around water bottles to be re-evaluated.
The Independent has contacted representatives for the stadium, as well as organisers T4F, for comment.
'I feel overwhelmed by grief'
In the wake of Benevides’s tragic death, Swift said she was “overwhelmed by grief” in an emotional statement on her Instagram Story.
She wrote: “I can’t believe that I’m writing these words, but it is with a shattered heart that I say we lost a fan earlier tonight before my show.
“There’s very little information I have other than the fact that she was so incredibly beautiful and far too young.
“I’m not going to be able to speak about the 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.”
The Independent
