Ana Benevides’ father is speaking out after his daughter, a Taylor Swift fan, died Friday at the singer’s concert in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, amid extreme temperatures.
“I lost my only daughter, a happy and intelligent girl. She was about to graduate in psychology next April, saving money,” Weiny Machado, 53 told Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo (via Hindustan Times).
“I have no words to express my pain. She left home to fulfill a dream and came back dead.”
Machado added that he wants an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Ana’s death.
“I want it to be found out whether they were in fact prohibited from bringing water, whether there was negligence in providing assistance,” he stated.
As Pvnew previously reported, Benevides died shortly before Swift’s Brazil Eras Tour show kicked off due to sweltering conditions.
According to Folha de S.Paulo, the young woman “fainted” while she was in the front row and was “resuscitated at the stadium for about 40 minutes” before suffering a second cardiac arrest while on the way to a hospital.
Benevides reportedly died shortly after arriving at a local hospital.
The newspaper added that the heat index at the stadium “reached 60º C” or 140° F and firefighters reportedly “counted a thousand faintings during the event.”
Fans on social media claimed they had been prohibited from bringing water bottles into the stadium.
In multiple videos shared over the weekend, Swift could be seen stopping her show several times to ask for water on behalf of her fans, who were chanting for water at one point.
Swift acknowledged Benevides’ death on social media expressing her shock and grief.
“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,” the “Bad Blood” singer wrote in a letter shared via her Instagram Stories early Saturday morning.
“I can’t even tell you how devastated I am by this.”
Swift, 33, said that she has “very little information” about the fan’s death “other than the fact that she was so incredibly beautiful and far too young.”
“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 added.
“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.”
The conditions also affected the singer, who seemed to struggle for breath during her performance.
A fan video from the concert shared online Saturday showed the star seemingly having trouble catching her breath right after singing “Bejeweled” at the end of her hours-long performance.
Swift postponed her second Rio concert due to the dangerously high temperatures.
“I’m writing this from my dressing room in the stadium. The decision has been made to postpone tonight’s show due to the extreme temperatures in Rio,” she wrote on her Instagram Story Saturday afternoon.
“The safety and well-being of my fans, fellow performers and crew always has to come first.”
