Taylor Swift Says Her Heart Is ‘Shattered’ After Death Of Fan At Her Rio ‘Eras’ Concert

On Friday, Ana Clara Benevides Machado, 23, died at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert at the Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In a handwritten letter published to Instagram, Swift wrote, “I can’t believe I’m writing these words, but it is with a shattered heart that I say we lost a fan earlier tonight before my show. I can’t even tell you how devastated I am by this.”

Swift acknowledged that she had “very little information” about the incident but called Benevides Machado “so incredibly beautiful and far too young.”

She added that she would not speak about the incident on stage.

“I feel overwhelmed by grief when I even try to talk about it,” she said.

“I want to say now that I feel this loss deeply and my broken heart goes out to her family and friends,” Swift concluded. “This is the last thing I ever thought would happen when we decided to bring this tour to Brazil.”

After her initial remarks, Swift posted another handwritten letter to her Instagram story, which explained that she had postponed the concert for that evening due to the extreme heat in Rio.

“The safety and well-being of my fans, fellow performers and crew has to and always will come first,” she wrote.

Fans were reportedly not allowed to bring water with them into the venue, despite the record heat wave.

Now, viral footage shows Swift pausing her performance in order to ask that water be distributed to fans who signaled for assistance. Those who were in need of hydration raised their phones in the air.

The singer said, “There are people that need water, right here,” as she pointed at members of the audience; “So whoever is in charge of giving them that, please come and make sure that that happens. Can I get a signal that you know where they are? Do you see the phones?”

Fans began to chant for water, and Swift told the crowd, “We don’t need to chant. It’s totally fine. But we just need to get water to them.” 

A conversation with a member of the audience assured her that water was distributed.

Justice Minister Flávio Dino announced on social media that his administration had adopted “emergency rules” to address the limited access to water at the show and other public events.

On the same day, tour producer Time4Fun took to Instagram and released an official statement in Portuguese that declared that they would permit attendees to bring sealed water and food into the venue and further assured that free water would be available in the queues. There would also be an increase in service staff members and medical stations at the event.

Swift made headlines last week when her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, attended her show in Buenos Aires.