Taylor Swift struggled to get through an acoustic performance of her song “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” at her Edinburgh, Scotland, concert June 7.
During the surprise song section of the night, Swift performed the “Midnights” track on guitar. About two minutes into the song, Swift paused the lyrics in the middle of the bridge to say, “We need help right in front of me please, right in front of me.”
According to videos from the concert posted to social media, Swift continued to strum the song’s melody, half-singing, half-speaking instructions to get the group of fans help.
“Just gonna keep playing until we notice where it is. Just right there,” she said turning sideways and using her guitar to point into the crowd.
“I’m just gonna keep playing ‘til somebody helps them. Then I’m gonna keep singing the song,” she continued, in rhythm with the track.
The video panned to a group of fans on the floor in front of the stage, frantically waving at Swift and pointing to the group in need of assistance.
“Just let me know when — I could do this all night,” she said, nearing the 30-second mark of the song’s pause.
She then received thumbs-up signs from the crowd and screamed, “Awesome,” before launching back into the bridge.
But that wasn’t the only break in “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve.”
A few seconds later, Swift abruptly stopped singing and strumming and held up her hand.
“My hand is frozen in a weird cramp, and I’m just gonna — this has never happened before, I’m really sorry,” she said, as she started flexing and massaging her hand.
“It’s like forming a claw,” she added. “Does anyone, no one relates at all?”
Then, once again, she bounced back, launching into the third verse.
“6 minutes of pure chaos, and I completely ascended,” one fan captioned a video of the full performance, complete with “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” and her surprise add on of “I Know Places” from “1989.”
Swift has previously paused songs to call attention to fans who seem to be struggling in the audience. In Lisbon, she drew attention to concertgoers in need of assistance by speaking Portuguese, shouting, “Ayuda por favor, up front,” which translates to “Help, please, up front.”
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 23-year-old Ana Clara Benevides collapsed at an “Eras Tour” show Nov. 17 and died at a local hospital amid extreme temperatures and a record heat wave. Benevides’s cause of death was later confirmed to be heat exhaustion.
“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,” she said. “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 said in a statement to her Instagram story Nov. 17.
“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,” she continued. “This is the last thing I ever thought would happen when we decided to bring this tour to Brazil.”