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 had been clad in a T-shirt just 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.
But tragedy and bother have adopted that heat welcome.
A fan died within the sweltering warmth at Friday night time’s present in Rio de Janeiro. At the eleventh hour, Swift postponed her Saturday present till Monday, to the dismay of 1000’s of followers who had already began filling the stadium. The navy 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 had been a departure from the triumphant first leg of Swift’s Eras Tour, a career-spanning manufacturing that broke information in North America. As the tour’s second present in Rio de Janeiro approached on Sunday night time, 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 night time 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 last 17 years waiting for the opportunity to go, to fulfill my teenage dream of meeting someone I’ve known since her first single,” Di Motta stated. “And to be sitting three hours in a chair, completely wet with sweat, having to overcome several personal challenges to be there completely alone, to receive the news that it was canceled — it was completely devastating.”
The Saturday night time present was postponed due to the acute temperatures, Swift stated in an Instagram put up hours earlier than the live performance was supposed to start at an open-air soccer stadium. “The safety and well-being of my fans, fellow performers and crew has to and always will come first,” she stated.
At that time, 1000’s of followers had traveled to see Swift, enduring the height of the day’s warmth, which reached 93 levels Fahrenheit, or 33 levels Celsius, earlier than they had been requested to go away the venue.
A consultant for Swift didn’t instantly reply to emailed questions concerning the postponement of the Saturday present.
The Rio exhibits got here after Swift carried out in Argentina, the primary cease on the Eras Tour outdoors 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 broadly on-line that she had arrived for the present at 11 a.m. “Taylor Swift, I’m wearing a geriatric diaper that doesn’t even close on me,” Alvarenga stated.
“I bought water, I bought a fan, everyone is crying, screaming, so you show up on this stage!” 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 getting 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.
While ready in line for Sunday night time’s live performance, Werner stated the environment was a lot calmer than that of the Friday present. “It’s not so hot, and everyone’s kind of holding back because of the nights before and everything that happened,” she stated.
She didn’t anticipate Swift to return to Brazil. “I’m sure she’s traumatized,” Werner stated.
Werner, like many different followers, blamed the Brazilian firm that organized the present, Time for Fun, for the issues. Wadih Damous, the pinnacle of Brazil’s shopper safety company, stated the federal government would examine Time for Fun. The firm stated on Saturday that it could add employees, present free water and permit followers to enter the stadium with water and meals.
As crowds left the stadium on Saturday night time, there have been experiences of unrest close to the positioning, the police stated.
After Matheus Duarte, 24, a warehouse employee, left the stadium and went to a shopping center close by, he noticed folks yelling that there was a raid.
“I don’t really know if it really happened, but I saw desperate people running,” Duarte stated. “And as soon as I saw it, I started running along and hid in a car park.”
On Sunday, the navy police stated there had been no experiences of robberies or muggings the night time earlier than. But 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 navy 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.
During 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 keeping with metropolis officers and the Brazilian firm that organized Swift’s present, Time for Fun.
Benevides, a psychology pupil, had traveled from Rondonópolis, which is about 880 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro, for the live performance, O Globo reported. Her good friend Emiliane Félix, 22, advised O Globo that 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 referred to as Twitter, Benevides shared her pleasure concerning the live performance, writing on Nov. 7, “I don’t know what my purpose in life will be after I see Taylor.”
Fans on the live performance on Friday complained a few lack of water and excessive warmth. The warmth index, a measure of how sizzling the air feels due to humidity, reached 139 levels Fahrenheit, a report for Rio.
In a web based put up, Swift stated she was “devastated” by her fan’s demise. “I’m not going to be able to speak about this from stage because I feel overwhelmed by grief when I even try to talk about it,” she stated.
Luiza Guimarães, 33, an economist, stated that she was upset it took so lengthy for Saturday’s present to be canceled as a result of some followers had been already not sure if it could go on after Benevides’s demise and had been fearful concerning the warmth. “Really, the production of the show was very reckless and everything was very poorly managed,” she stated.
Guimarães stated that she doesn’t blame Swift for the issues and that she thought the musician have to be “very, very discouraged.”
Reporting was contributed by Genevieve Glatsky in Rio de Janeiro and Jack Nicas in Buenos Aires.
Source: www.nytimes.com