The family of Ana Clara Benevides Machado — a Taylor Swift fan who died before an Eras Tour performance in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil earlier this month — attended the singer’s performance on Sunday.
Swift, 33, invited Benevides Machado’s loved ones, including her father, Weiny Machado, to her final Brazilian tour stop in São Paulo, a source close to Swift confirmed to PEOPLE.
The 23-year-old fan died on November 17 ahead of Swift’s concert at Nilton Santos Stadium. She was unwell at the Rio gym and was treated by emergency services before being taken to a nearby hospital, where she died, event organizer Time for Fun announced on X (formerly Twitter).
Taylor Swift sings an emotional song about loss 2 days after mourning the death of a fan in Brazil
At Swift’s performance on Sunday, just nine days after Benevides Machado’s death, the late fan’s family watched the performer from what appeared to be a VIP tent, trapped by fans clip divided into X shows.
The group of five wore the same shirts with Benevides Machado’s character on them during and after the show, when they met Swift and posed for a photo with her. (Several Swift fan accounts shared the photo on X.)
Ana Benevides died before a Taylor Swift concert on November 17.
Ana Benevides Instagram
After learning of Benevides Machado’s death on Nov. 17, Swift shared a message about the late fan on her Instagram Story.
“I can’t believe I’m writing these words, but I’m heartbroken to say that we lost a fan tonight before my show,” the singer began. “I can’t even describe to you how much this crushed me. I have very little information other than the fact that she was incredibly beautiful and too young.”
The Midnight the singer went on to say that she will not be able to talk about Benevides Machado during her concerts.
“I won’t be able to talk about this from the stage because I feel overwhelmed with grief when I even try to talk about it,” she wrote. “I want to say that right now I feel this loss deeply and my heart goes out to my family and friends.”
“This is the last thing I thought would happen when we decided to bring this tour to Brazil,” she added.
Taylor Swift returns to Eras tour stage after mourning fan who died before show in Brazil amid extreme heat
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Taylor Swift wrapped up the Brazilian leg of her Eras Tour on November 26.
Buda Mendes/TAS23/Getty
After his daughter’s death, Weiny (53) told a Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo“I lost my only daughter, a happy and intelligent girl.”
“She was supposed to major in psychology next April, saving money,” Weiny said. “I have no words to express my pain. She left home to fulfill a dream and came back dead.”
According to Folha de S. Paulofans at Swift’s Nov. 19 show in Rio claimed they weren’t given water while waiting in line for the concert even though the singer postponed her Nov. 18 Rio show due to extreme heat.
In the same interview, Weiny said he wanted clarification on whether fans were banned from bringing water into Nilton Santos Stadium on the day of Benevides Machado’s death. (Temperatures reached 102 degrees on Nov. 17, according to PBS.org.)
“I want to know if it is true that they were forbidden to bring water and that they neglected to provide assistance,” he told the newspaper.
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Time for Fun, the company that organized Swift’s shows in Brazil – and announced the death of Benevides Machado – is now under investigation.
The Rio de Janeiro Civil Police Department of Consumer Delegations is investigating an alleged “crime of endangerment of life or health” by the company, NBC News reported.
Organizers of the event are expected to be called to testify, and authorities have begun taking additional steps “to investigate the facts,” the release said.
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Source: HIS Education