Taylor Swift was welcomed to Brazil on Thursday by a projection that made the world-famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro seem as if it have been clad in a T-shirt much like the one she wore in her “You Belong to Me” music video and was adorned with the names of Brazilian states and symbols from her songs.
However tragedy and bother have adopted that heat welcome.
A fan died within the sweltering warmth at Friday evening’s present in Rio de Janeiro. On the eleventh hour, Ms. Swift postponed her Saturday present till Monday, to the dismay of 1000’s of followers who had already began filling the stadium. The army police stated a fan who was in Rio de Janeiro for the often scheduled live performance on Sunday was stabbed to demise earlier that morning.
The fatalities and different issues have been a departure from the triumphant first leg of Ms. Swift’s Eras Tour, a career-spanning manufacturing that broke information in North America. Because the tour’s second present in Rio de Janeiro approached on Sunday evening, followers grappled with ruined journey plans, excessive warmth and disappointment.
Anne Di Motta, 30, a psychologist in São Paulo, Brazil, was presupposed to attend the Saturday evening present and stated she can be returning residence earlier than the rescheduled live performance on Monday as a result of she needed to work.
“I spent the final 17 years ready for the chance to go, to satisfy my teenage dream of assembly somebody I’ve recognized since her first single,” Ms. Di Motta stated. “And to be sitting three hours in a chair, utterly moist with sweat, having to beat a number of private challenges to be there utterly alone, to obtain the information that it was canceled — it was utterly devastating.”
The Saturday evening present was postponed due to the acute temperatures, Ms. Swift stated in an Instagram publish hours earlier than the live performance was supposed to start at an open-air soccer stadium. “The security and well-being of my followers, fellow performers and crew has to and at all times will come first,” she stated.
At that time, 1000’s of followers had traveled to see Ms. Swift, enduring the height of the day’s warmth, which reached 93 levels Fahrenheit, or 33 levels Celsius, earlier than they have been requested to go away the venue.
A consultant for Ms. Swift didn’t instantly reply to emailed questions in regards to the postponement of the Saturday present.
The Rio reveals got here after Ms. Swift carried out in Argentina, the primary cease on the Eras Tour exterior North America. She needed to transfer one present in Buenos Aires due to a storm. She is scheduled to carry out in São Paulo on Nov. 24, Nov. 25 and Nov. 26, earlier than touring subsequent yr to cities throughout South America, Asia, Australia and Europe.
Julia Alvarenga, a social media influencer, was within the stadium when the live performance was postponed and stated in a video shared extensively on-line that she had arrived for the present at 11 a.m. “Taylor Swift, I’m carrying a geriatric diaper that doesn’t even shut on me,” Ms. Alvarenga stated.
“I purchased water, I purchased a fan, everyone seems to be crying, screaming, so that you present up on this stage!” Ms. Alvarenga stated.
Gabriela Werner, 24, a advertising and marketing analyst, purchased tickets for every present in Rio and two in São Paulo, and stated she began making ready for the warmth three months in the past by figuring out in a health club with out air con in the midst of the day. She lives in Porto Alegre, about 700 miles southwest of Rio.
Whereas ready in line for Sunday evening’s live performance, Ms. Werner stated the environment was a lot calmer than that of the Friday present. “It’s not so scorching, and everybody’s form of holding again due to the nights earlier than and the whole lot that occurred,” she stated.
She didn’t count on Ms. Swift to return to Brazil. “I’m certain she’s traumatized,” Ms. Werner stated.
Ms. Werner, like many different followers, blamed the Brazilian firm that organized the present, Time for Enjoyable, for the issues. Wadih Damous, the pinnacle of Brazil’s shopper safety company, stated the federal government would examine Time for Enjoyable. The corporate stated on Saturday that it could add workers, present free water and permit followers to enter the stadium with water and meals.
As crowds left the stadium on Saturday evening, there have been reviews of unrest close to the location, the police stated.
After Matheus Duarte, 24, a warehouse employee, left the stadium and went to a shopping center close by, he noticed individuals yelling that there was a raid.
“I don’t actually know if it actually occurred, however I noticed determined individuals working,” Mr. Duarte stated. “And as quickly as I noticed it, I began working alongside and hid in a carpark.”
On Sunday, the army police stated there had been no reviews of robberies or muggings the evening earlier than. However earlier than the live performance on Sunday, a fan in Rio de Janeiro for the live performance was stabbed to demise after an tried theft in Copacabana, the well-known beachside strip, the army police stated. Two males had been arrested, they stated. The fan, Gabriel Mongenot Santana Milhomem Santos, was with pals when he was stabbed, the civil police stated.
Throughout Friday’s present, Ana Clara Benevides, 23, died after shedding consciousness, officers stated. She was pronounced useless of cardiac arrest after being taken to a hospital, in line with metropolis officers and the Brazilian firm that organized Ms. Swift’s present, Time for Enjoyable.
Ms. Benevides, a psychology scholar, had traveled from Rondonópolis, which is about 880 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro, for the live performance, O Globo reported. Her pal Emiliane Félix, 22, advised O Globo that Ms. Benevides had been sending her pals images of her outfits for the live performance “for over a month.”
On X, the social media platform previously often called Twitter, Ms. Benevides shared her pleasure in regards to the live performance, writing on Nov. 7, “I don’t know what my objective in life can be after I see Taylor.”
Followers on the live performance on Friday complained a few lack of water and excessive warmth. The warmth index, a measure of how scorching the air feels due to humidity, reached 139 levels Fahrenheit, a file for Rio.
In a web-based publish, Ms. Swift stated she was “devastated” by her fan’s demise. “I’m not going to have the ability to discuss this from stage as a result of I really feel overwhelmed by grief once I even attempt to discuss it,” she stated.
Luiza Guimarães, 33, an economist, stated that she was disillusioned it took so lengthy for Saturday’s present to be canceled as a result of some followers have been already uncertain if it could go on after Ms. Benevides’s demise and have been anxious in regards to the warmth. “Actually, the manufacturing of the present was very reckless and the whole lot was very poorly managed,” she stated.
Ms. Guimarães stated that she doesn’t blame Ms. Swift for the issues and that she thought the musician have to be “very, very discouraged.”
Jack Nicas contributed reporting from Buenos Aires.
