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- The show was part of Swift’s hugely popular The Eras Tour.
- Temperatures near the stadium rose to 99 degrees Friday afternoon.
- Swift postponed a concert scheduled for Saturday at the same venue.
A fan died after falling ill in extreme heat at a concert by superstar singer Taylor Swift in Brazil on Friday evening.
The incident prompted Swift to postpone Saturday’s show at the same venue. It was not immediately clear when the concert would be rescheduled.
The woman was identified by concert promoter Time4Fun as 23-year-old Ana Clara Benevides Machado. She was attended to by medical staff at the concert at the Nilton Santos Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro and then taken to a hospital, where she died about an hour later.
Although the cause of death was not immediately known, temperatures near the stadium rose to 39 degrees Friday afternoon and fell below 90 degrees by 8 p.m
(MORE: Why are heat waves getting worse?)
Daniele Menin, a friend who attended the concert with Machado, told online news site G1 that her friend fainted as Swift performed her second song of the night, “Cruel Summer.”
“It came out of nowhere,” Menin told G1. “We were very happy. We cried with joy during the first song. Out of nowhere she just fell. She didn’t complain about anything. We carried her over the railing, I jumped and got her out.”
Machado had flown from her home in midwestern Brazil to see Swift, her favorite musician, The Associated Press reported. It was her first time on a plane.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – NOVEMBER 17: EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO BOOK COVERS. Taylor Swift performs on stage during the “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” at the Estadio Olimpico Nilton Santos on November 17, 2023 in Rio de Janeiro.
(Photo by Buda Mendes/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
The show, part of Swift’s wildly popular The Eras Tour, began around 7:30 p.m. Machado posted on social media that she arrived at the stadium at 11 a.m. Typically, fans wait outside for hours before one of the shows, which are held in huge outdoor stadiums.
“It was extremely hot. My hair was so wet from sweat when I walked in,” concert-goer Elizabeth Morin, 26, told the AP. “There was a point where I had to check my breathing to make sure I wasn’t going to pass out.”
Morin said the stadium felt like a sauna.
(MORE: Three signs of heat exhaustion)
People at the concert complained that they were not allowed to bring water into the stadium, and Machado’s death prompted a petition to “make water mandatory at events at concerts.” 150,000 signatures were collected within a few hours.
Taylor Swift fans wait for the doors of the Nilton Santos Olympic Stadium to open for her Eras Tour concert, amid a heatwave in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday, November 18, 2023. A 23-year-old Taylor Swift -Fan died in it According to a statement from the organizers of the show in Brazil, the singer’s Eras Tour concert took place in Rio de Janeiro on Friday evening.
(AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
The Brazilian government reacted quickly to the death.
Justice Minister Flávio Dino posted on social media on Saturday morning that there were rules is changed to immediately mandate that water bottles for personal use be allowed at concerts and that companies hosting shows in high heat conditions must provide free drinking water in easily accessible “drinking islands.”
Large parts of Brazil and neighboring Paraguay were hit by a scorching heatwave last week.
Swift wrote on Instagram after Friday’s show: “I won’t be able to talk about this on stage because I feel overwhelmed with grief if I even try to talk about it.” I want to say now “I feel this loss deeply and my heartbreak goes out to her family and friends.”
On Saturday, she added another message: “I am writing this from my dressing room at the stadium. Due to the extreme temperatures in Rio, the decision has been made to postpone tonight’s show,” the singer said in a handwritten note posted to her Instagram account. “The safety and well-being of my fans, fellow artists and crew must and will always come first.”
A week earlier, Swift postponed a show in Argentina due to fears of bad weather such as storms and rain.
Weather.com reporter Jan Childs covers breaking news and features on weather, space, climate change, the environment and everything in between.
The Weather Company’s core journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science in our lives. This story does not necessarily reflect the position of our parent company, IBM.