“Devastated” by the death of a fan in the middle of a heatwave in Rio, Taylor Swift postpones a concert

“The safety and well-being of my fans, other artists and technicians must always be a priority,” explained the global star in a post on Instagram, while temperatures flirted with 60° Celsius this weekend.

A little earlier in the day, she had taken to the same social network to mourn the death of a 23-year-old fan during her concert on Friday, whose organizers are strongly criticized for having prohibited spectators from bringing bottles of water despite the oppressive heat.

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,” Taylor Swift wrote on her Instagram account. “I can’t even tell you how devastated I am.”

“I feel overwhelmed by 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.

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Rio health authorities announced that Ana Benevides died Friday evening after 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 in Brazil .

Efforts to resuscitate her failed and an investigation was launched, she said, adding that “for the moment, the causes of death cannot be determined.”

“Crime for lack of organization”

Brazil’s Justice Minister on Saturday demanded 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.

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 “chosen to transfer her to the Salgado Filho hospital after almost a emergency care hour”.

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.

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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’re not depriving anyone of water.”