Rain-Soaked Taylor Swift Performs Emotional ‘Bigger Than The Whole Sky’ in Honor of Dead Fan

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | November 20, 2023 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | November 20, 2023 |

Last week was a tough one for Taylor Swift. Dangerously high temperatures in Brazil are thought to be the cause of the tragic death of 23-year-old Ana Clara Benevides Machado, who was tended to by paramedics at an Eras Tour show before being taken to a hospital, where she died after going into cardiac arrest. Swift acknowledged the tragedy before Friday’s show and then had to stop her performance several times that night to make sure audience members were given water. Then, on Saturday, she made the decision to postpone that night’s show, as temperatures were still rising.

Things cooled off on Sunday, so she took the stage again, but the change in temperature brought a rainstorm. She pushed through and performed anyway, this not being the first time she’s had to sing and dance in the rain—her Foxborough, Massachusetts show this summer was even wetter than this one—and by the time she sat down at the piano for the acoustic segment of the show, she was soaked. Throughout the Eras Tour, the acoustic set has been where Swift surprises her fans by deviating from the set list to perform different songs every night. On Sunday in Brazil, one of those songs was “Bigger Than The Whole Sky” from the album Midnights, an emotional ballad about grief after the death of a loved one.

📹| Full length video of Taylor performing "Bigger Than The Whole Sky" at the second Eras show in Rio #RioTSTheErasTour pic.twitter.com/eeRg1N4kXr

— Taylor Swift Updates 🩵 (@swifferupdates) November 20, 2023

While Swift made no mention of Machado or offered any explanation as to her choice of the song, serious Swifties know that nothing she does is random. She is acutely aware of the obsessive nature of her fanbase, and so she knew how they would interpret such a choice.

The rescheduling of Saturday’s show for tonight means that she can’t be in Kansas City for Travis Kelce’s game, where she had apparently planned to introduce her parents to his.

The bond between Swift and her fans was further proven later in the night when the audience chanted her name and “Te amo” so loudly that she paused and took out her earpieces to soak it in.

TAYLOR EU TE AMO #RioTSTheErasTour pic.twitter.com/aWhBx8CN0V

— andre - the eras rj n1,n2, n3 🩷 (@dayIightcamila) November 20, 2023