The family of Ana Clara Benevides Machado — the Taylor Swift fan, who died before an Eras Tour show in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil earlier this month — attended the singer’s Sunday show.
Swift, 33, invited Benevides Machado’s loved ones, including her father, Weiny Machado, to her final Brazil tour stop in São Paulo, a source close to Swift confirms to PEOPLE.
The 23-year-old fan died on Nov. 17 ahead of Swift’s concert at Estadio Nilton Santos. She felt unwell at the Rio venue, and was attended to by first responders before being transferred to a nearby hospital, where she died, event organizer Time for Fun announced on X (formerly Twitter).
At Swift’s Sunday show, just nine days after Benevides Machado’s death, the late fan’s family watched the performer from what appeared to be a VIP tent, a fan-captured clip shared on X shows.
The group of five wore matching shirts with Benevides Machado’s face on them during the show, as well as when they met Swift beforehand and posed for a photo with her. (Several Swift fan accounts shared the photo on X.)
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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 it’s with a shattered heart that I say we lost a fan earlier tonight before my show,” the singer began. “I can’t even tell you how devastated I am by this. There’s very little information I have other than the fact she was so incredibly beautiful and far too young.”
The Midnights songstress went on to say that she would not be able to talk about Benevides Machado during her concerts.
“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,” she wrote. “I want to say now I feel this loss deeply and my 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 added.
After his daughter’s death, Weiny, 53, told Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, “I lost my only daughter, a happy and intelligent girl.”
“She was about to graduate 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.Paulo, fans at Swift’s Nov. 19 Rio show claimed that they were not given any water while waiting in line for the concert even though the singer had postponed her Nov. 18 Rio show due to extreme heat.
In the same interview, Weiny said he wants clarification on whether fans were prohibited from bringing water into Estadio Nilton Santos on the day Benevides Machado died. (Temperatures reached 102 degrees on Nov. 17, per PBS.org.)
“I want to know if it’s true that they are prohibited from bringing water and neglected to provide assistance,” he told the outlet.
Time for Fun, the company that organized Swift’s Brazil shows — and announced Benevides Machado’s death — is now under investigation.
The Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro’s consumer delegations department is investigating the alleged “crime of danger to life or health” by the company, NBC News reported.
Event organizers are expected to be called to testify and authorities have begun taking additional steps “to investigate the facts,” per the outlet.
Source : People