Taylor Swift met with the family of late fan Ana Clara Benevides Machado ahead of the singer’s final show in São Paulo on Sunday, November 26.
According to the photo circulating on social media and several outlets, Swift, 33, posed with the family backstage. Sources confirm to Us Weekly that Swift invited the family to her show. While the singer was in an Eras Tour outfit, Machado’s family members were wearing T-shirts with the late fan’s face on them.
Machado died at age 23 earlier this month ahead of Swift’s November 17 show in Rio de Janeiro.
“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,” Swift wrote via Instagram Stories upon hearing the news. “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 that she felt “overwhelmed by grief” attempting to talk about the loss.
“I want to say now I feel this loss deeply and my broken heart goes out to her family and friends,” she concluded. “This is the last thing I ever thought would happen when we decided to bring this tour to Brazil.”
The musician noted that she would be unable to speak about the fan’s death on stage, but she appeared to subtly honor Machado by singing “Bigger Than the Whole Sky” from her 2022 Midnights album during the November 19 concert. Us Weekly later confirmed that Swift’s team had “reached out” to the Machado family.
“She was completely beside herself and it’s been so hard for her to talk about,” the insider said, adding that Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce, has been “been a huge support system.”
One day after Machado’s passing, Time4Fun, a local concert organizer, shared a statement regarding her death.
“Last night, Ana Clara felt unwell and was promptly attended to by the team of firefighters and paramedics, being taken to the Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos [on-site medic] for first aid protocol,” they shared in a November 18 statement. “Given the situation, the medical team chose to transfer her to Salgado Filho Hospital, where, after almost an hour of emergency care, she unfortunately died.”
That same day, Machado’s father, Weiny Machado, spoke about losing his “happy and intelligent” daughter in a statement shared to local newspaper Folha de São Paulo.
“She was about to graduate in Psychology next April, saving money,” the statement read. “I have no words to express my pain. She left home to fulfill a dream and came back dead.”
A cause of death for Machado has yet to be revealed. NBC News reported on November 24 that the Brazilian police have launched an investigation into Time4Fun for “the crime of endangering the life and health” of concertgoers by putting on the Eras Tour in the midst of an extreme heatwave.
“Event organizers will be called to testify, and other steps are underway to investigate the facts,” a statement from the Civil Police Department of Rio de Janeiro shared.
Time4Fun CEO Serafim Abreu apologized to fans who “did not have the best possible experience” at the show, in a November 23 statement. “We know the enormous responsibility we have to organize an event of this scale, which is why we did not economize in our efforts or resources to follow the best global practices in our industry to guarantee the comfort and safety of all.”
