Taylor Swift on Sunday met with the family of Ana Clara Benevides Machado, the 23-year-old fan who this month died while attending the star’s concert in Brazil.
Ahead of her final Eras Tour show at the Allianz Parque stadium in São Paulo, Swift posed for a photo with the Machado family, Entertainment Tonight reported.
In the photo, which has since been circulated online, the 33-year-old Anti-Hero singer stood beside Machado’s loved ones, including her father, Weiny Machado. Swift wore a pink, glittering bodysuit used during her stage show, while the family members each wore a white T-shirt featuring an image of Machado’s face.
It is not clear if Machado’s loved ones were invited by Swift directly, or by a member of her team.
On Nov. 17, Machado felt unwell and then collapsed inside the Nilton Santos Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro during the second song of Swift’s set. She later suffered cardiac arrest and died in hospital shortly after. The exact cause of her death has not been confirmed.
Daytime highs in Rio de Janeiro on Nov. 17 reportedly reached just over 39 degrees Celsius. Despite the heat wave, Swift’s fans have complained they were not allowed to take water into the venue.
Swift said she was “devastated” to hear a fan died during her concert.
“I can’t believe I’m writing these words, but it’s with a shattered heart that I say we lost a fan earlier tonight before my show,” Swift wrote on her Instagram story on Nov. 18. “There’s very little information I have other than the fact that she was so incredibly beautiful and far too young.”
Swift told her fans she wouldn’t be speaking about Machado while on stage because she was “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. This is the last thing I ever thought would happen when we decided to bring this tour to Brazil,” Swift wrote.
Swift and her team then postponed her Nov. 18 show in the country because of extreme temperatures.
When Swift stepped onto the Rio de Janeiro stage on Nov. 20, the pop star sang an emotional, rain-soaked rendition of her song Bigger Than the Whole Sky as one of her surprise songs. Though Swift never specified, many of her fans interpreted the selection — a ballad about loss, featuring the lyrics “You were bigger than the whole sky/You were more than just a short time” — as a subtle way to dedicate the performance to Machado.
Machado’s father Weiny told the local news outlet Folha de S.Paulo that his daughter was a psychology student who “left home to fulfill a dream and came back dead.”
“I lost my only daughter, a happy and intelligent girl,” he said in Portuguese. “I have no words to express my pain.”
Machado’s death spurred outrage from Swifties and politicians in Brazil.
Quickly after news of her death broke, fans of the singer launched a petition to make water freely accessible in concert venues. In only hours, the petition garnered over 150,000 signatures. Brazil’s federal authorities took note and announced that free water would be available at all future concerts.
The company that organized Swift’s Brazilian concerts, Time for Fun, is currently under investigation for “the crime of endangering the life and health” of concertgoers, as reported by NBC News.
Swift’s run of concerts in Brazil was rocky, with two fans left dead, several reported muggings and a dangerous heatwave, the Associated Press reported.
A second Swift fan, 25-year-old Gabriel Mongenot Santana Milhomem Santos from Cuba, was stabbed to death on a Copacabana beach on Nov. 20. Santos travelled to the country to see Swift perform.
Videos on social media showed groups of pickpockets robbing fans of their belongings in Rio, though this kind of robbery is not uncommon in the region, according to AP.
Sunday’s concert in São Paulo was Swift’s final Eras Tour performance in 2023. The tour will resume in Tokyo, Japan, on Feb. 7.
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