Heat exhaustion caused the death of Brazilian Taylor Swift fan Ana Clara Benevides, who attended the Nov. 17 Eras tour concert in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The health issue was determined as the cause of Benevides’ death in a forensics report obtained by The Associated Press Wednesday. The expert who evaluated Benevides’ body cited “serious compromise of her lungs and sudden death” because of the heat.
According to the report, the young woman did not have “preexisting conditions or substance abuse” that could have been contributing factors, but “heat exposure led to a cardiorespiratory arrest.” Rio reported temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius (105 Fahrenheit) that day, as well as similar high numbers throughout the week.
Lines of fans extended hours before the show to get into the crowded Nilton Santos Stadium, which housed more than 60,000 concert attendees who were not allowed to bring their own water inside. Organizers have also since been accused of failure to deliver enough water supplies for the audience at the Friday show.
Swift posted a note in her handwriting to her Instagram story acknowledging Benevides’ death, but the timeline the singer gave, in which the fan died before the concert, conflicts with the AP report that the 23-year-old passed out during the first full song performed in Swift’s Eras lineup — “Cruel Summer” — and died hours later at a local hospital.
“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. There’s very little information I have other than the fact that she was so incredibly beautiful and far too young,” Swift wrote in a statement posted as a since-expired Instagram Story.
“I’m not going to be able to speak about this from the stage because I feel 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,” she continued.
A friend of Benevides, who also attended the concert, told local media in November that they had obtained water while waiting to get into the stadium. Organizers T4F said in a statement that they “followed the best practices,” and “every demand from authorities” and “distributed thousands of bottles of water” to fans.
TF4 denied the claims that outside water was not allowed into the venue.
“In our 40 years in the business, this company had never registered a tragic episode” like Benevides’ death due to extreme heat, T4F said. The organizers also said that Benevides “was promptly cared for by members of a rescue team and sent (to the hospital) in an intensive-care unit ambulance.”
Swift postponed her Nov. 18 show the following night due to more extreme high temperatures in Brazil. She then played two more shows in the Brazilian city on Nov. 19 and 20.
