Taylor Swift dug out another pair of deep cuts at the Eras Tour’s first night in Rio De Janeiro Friday as the singer delivered the live debut of “Suburban Legends” as well as the first performance of her “Stay Beautiful” in 15 years.
Prior to the “Surprise Songs” portion of the setlist, Swift told the crowd it was her goal to mine her catalog for stuff she hadn’t played yet on the Eras Tour.
“I wanted to play something to honor the fact that so many Brazilian fans have been with me since Day One,” Swift told the crowd at Estadio Nilton Santos. “For those of you who were there when I was putting out my first album, I wrote that when I was 14 and 15, so I wanted to play something from my first album. I can’t remember the last time I played this song.”
Acoustic guitar in hand, Swift then performed the first “Stay Beautiful,” from her self-titled debut LP, for the first time since 2008.
From her first release to her latest release, Swift then shifted to the piano for the first-ever live rendition of “Suburban Legends,” one of the Vault tracks from her recently released 1989 (Taylor’s Version).
Prior to the performance in Rio De Janeiro, which is experiencing record-high temperatures and “excessive heat” warnings this week, Swift took to social media and said she was “overwhelmed by grief” after a fan died before her Eras Tour show began in Brazil on Friday, likely due to cardiac arrest from the heat.
“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 in a statement shared to her Instagram Story. “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.”
She continued, “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. 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.”
According to ABC News, in the days before Friday’s concert, the heat index in Rio — a combination of temperature and humidity — reached roughly 137 degrees.
The sweltering conditions were felt inside the stadium as fans pleaded for water within the venue.
Footage taken during the concert shows Swift had paused the performance to indicate fans who needed water in the audience and at one point could be seen throwing water into the crowd. “There’s people that need water right here, maybe 30, 35, 40 feet back,” she said while in the middle of a set. “So whoever is in charge of giving them that, just make sure that happens. Can I get a signal that you know where they are?”
