Taylor Swift made a tearful return to the stage in Brazil following the death of a young fan amid a heatwave.
The singer, 33, performed a heartfelt piano ballad during her second show at Rio de Janeiro’s Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos on Sunday night.
It was reported by local media that over 1,000 fans fainted from the heat at the gig while Swift herself could be seen struggling for air in videos that circulated the internet.
Throughout that night, Swift was caught multiple times on camera asking for stadium staff to provide fans with water, even tossing them bottles of water mid-performance.
Just 48 hours later, another fan, Gabriel Santos, 25, was stabbed to death in a violent robbery on Copacabana beach as he made his way to the Grammy winner’s show on Sunday night.
The Anti-Hero hitmaker looked visibly upset on stage as she performed Bigger Than The Whole Sky, a heart-wrenching ballad detailing loss and mourning, during the acoustic segment of her show.
EU TE AMO TAYLOR ALISON SWIFT, essa aqui foi pra Ana Benevites #RioTSTheErasTour pic.twitter.com/RRcIFh6fak
— Marj🏳️🌈 The Eras Tour (@marj_bf) November 20, 2023
When it was first released on her 2022 album Midnights, the track became an anthem for fans dealing with grief.
She emotionally belted out the lyrics: “No words appear before me in the aftermath / salt streams out my eyes and into my ears / every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness / 'cause it's all over now, all out to sea.”
When Swift reached the chorus, tears could be seen streaming down her face as she sang: “Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye / You were bigger than the whole sky / You were more than just a short time / And I've got a lot to pine about / I've got a lot to live without / I'm never gonna meet / What could've been, would've been / What should've been you.”
After finishing the song, the hitmaker paused for a moment before turning toward her fans and blowing them a kiss, mouthing the words “I love you all”.
While Swift didn't say that the song was dedicated to the fans who had died, she previously wrote in an Instagram story that she wouldn't be able to speak about it on stage because it's too painful.
Following her performance of the track, which hasn’t been performed prior, many fans speculated that the song was for them.
One X user, a platform formerly known as Twitter, wrote: “i know taylor said she wouldn’t be able to speak about ana on stage as it is too painful for her but bigger than the whole sky was such a beautiful way to honour her, truly so special :(.”
On Saturday, Swift cancelled her second Rio show hours before she was set to take the stage due to unusually “extreme heat” in the city.
In an Instagram post shared to her Story, she wrote a hand-written note that said: “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. The safety and wellbeing of my fans, fellow performers and crew has to and will always come first.”
The show has been rescheduled to take place Monday, November 20, with all tickets to Saturday's performance remaining valid for the new date.
