The American superstar, who is due to play six concerts in the Brazilian megacity of Rio, overwhelmed by extreme heat for several days, postponed his concert on Saturday evening after the death the day before of a 23-year-old fan at the Nilton Santos Olympic stadium.
“Devastated” by the death of a fan, which occurred Friday November 17 in Rio de Janeiro during the first Brazilian show of his Eras Tour which initially had six, American singer Taylor Swift announced on Saturday the postponement of her evening concert at the same place, due to the extreme heat.
“The safety and well-being of my fans, other artists and technicians must always be the priority“, explained in a post on Instagram the global star, whose concert was postponed to Monday while this weekend the temperatures felt flirt with 60 degrees Celsius.
Spectators were prohibited from bringing bottled water
A little earlier in the day, she had taken to the same social network to mourn the death of a 23-year-old fan, Ana Benavides, during her concert on Friday, whose organizers are strongly criticized for having banned spectators to bring bottles of water despite the oppressive heat.
Saturday before the announcement of the postponement of the concert, fans who were already queuing to enter the stadium protected themselves from the sun with umbrellas while firefighters threw water on the crowd, noted an AFP journalist . Yasmin Monteiro, 24, castigated the organization of the day before. “It’s absurd. What happened is a crime for lack of organization. We don’t deprive anyone of water“.
Videos posted on social media show how the star tried to help her thirsty fans, sending assistants to hand out bottles of water and even throwing them into the audience herself. “It is with a broken heart that I say we lost a fan earlier this evening“, wrote Taylor Swift on her Instagram account. “I can’t even tell you how devastated I am.”. “I feel overwhelmed with grief when I even try to talk about it“.”I feel this loss deep within me, and my broken heart goes out to his family and friends“, she added.
An investigation will have to determine the causes of death
Rio health authorities announced that Ana Benevides died Friday evening after suffering a cardiopulmonary arrest in the Nilton Santos stadium during the concert attended by 60,000 spectators, the first in a series of six shows that the star was to give at the Brazil.
Efforts to resuscitate her failed and an investigation was launched, authorities said, adding that “At this time, the causes of death cannot be determined.“.
Time For Fun, producer of the event, specified in a press release that the young woman had been “quickly taken care of“and that the medical team had”chose to transfer her to Salgado Filho Hospital after about an hour of emergency care“.
The temperature felt in Rio flirts with 60 degrees Celsius
The Brazilian Minister of Justice demanded on Saturday that all event organizers guarantee visitors’ access to drinking water.It is unacceptable that people suffer, faint and even die because they do not have access to water“, declared the Minister of Justice, Flavio Dino, wishing to clarify that the cause of this death had yet to be formally established.
Much of central and southeastern Brazil has been suffering for several days from stifling temperatures far from normal for an austral spring, with a felt temperature climbing to 59.3°C in Rio on Friday, a record since the start of records in 2014, according to the Alerta Rio system.