Ariana Grande hasn’t just spoken out once again in response to the bombing that killed 22 of her fans this past Monday night.
She’s spoken out in defiance.
In brave, admirable, impressive defiance.
Shortly after the mass murder in Manchester this week, Grande took to Twitter and simply wrote that she was “broken.”
She sent her apologies to all affected by the heinous terrorist act, but, really, what else could she say at that time?
Nothing. Not really. Not anything that could be of any real use or assistance or comfort to families that lost their children at her concert.
Now, however, the 23-year old star has issued her longest and most heartfelt response yet to the unimaginable event.
As you’ve likely read all about by now, a suicide bomber (with alleged ties to ISIS) detonated a nail bomb around 10:30 p.m. on Monday, targeting attendees as they left Grande’s show.
The dead ranged in age from 8 to 50, with Grande canceling upcoming European tour dates in response and asking everyone to keep these victims in their thoughts and prayers.
Again, what else could she really say?
After a few days home with her boyfriend and her family, however, Grande has formulated somewhat of a plan.
She has once again extended her condolences to everyone impacted by this massacre, but she’s also stood strong in the face of such terrorist actions.
And she’s made it clear that she won’t let hate defeat love.
“My heart, prayers and deepest condolences or with the victims of the Manchester Attack and their loved ones,” Grande writes to open her new message, adding:
“There is nothing I or anyone can do to take away the pain you are feeling or to make this better.
“However, I extend my hand and heart and everything I possibly can give to you and yours, should you want or need my help in any way.”
Grande goes on to explain her plans, saying she’ll return to Manchester at some point down the line and she will once again perform in this beloved city.
She’ll raise money for the families of the victims and she will try as hard as she can to serve as a positive role model in these trying times.
Scroll down to read her entire, awe-inspiring statement…
The only thing we can do now is choose how we let this affect us and how we live our lives from here on out. I have been thinking of my fans, and of all of you, nonstop over the past week.
The way you have handled all of this has been more inspiring and made me more proud than you’ll ever know. The compassion, kindness, love, strength and oneness that you’ve shown one another this past week is the exact opposite of the heinous intentions it must take to pull off something as evil as what happened on Monday.
YOU are the opposite.
I am sorry for the pain and fear that you must be feeling and for the trauma that you, too, must be experiencing.
We will never be able to understand why events like this take place because it is not in our nature, which is why we shouldn’t recoil. We will not quit or operate in fear. We won’t let this divide us. We won’t let hate win.
I don’t want to go the rest of the year without being able to see and hold and uplift my fans, the same way they continue to uplift me. Our response to this violence must be to come closer together, to help each other, to love more, to sing louder and to live more kindly and generously then we did before.
I’ll be returning to the incredibly brave city of Manchester to spend time with my fans and to have a benefit concert in honor of and to raise money for the victims and their families.
I want to think my fellow musicians and friends for reaching out to be a part of our expression of love from Manchester.
I will have details to share with you as soon as everything is confirmed.
In conclusion, Grande writes:
From the day we started putting the ‘Dangerous Woman Tour’ together, I said that this show, more than anything else, was intended to be a safe space for my fans.
A place for them to escape, to celebrate, to heal, to feel safe and to be themselves. To meet their friends they’ve made online. To express themselves. This will not change that.
When you look into the audience at my shows, you see a beautiful, diverse, pure, happy crowd. Thousands of people, incredibly different, all there for the same reason, music.
Music is something that everyone on Earth can share. Music is meant to heal us, to bring us together, to make us happy. So that is what it will continue to do for us. We will continue in honor of the ones we lost, their loved ones, my fans and all affected by this tragedy.
They will be on my mind and in my heart everyday and I will think of them with everything I do for the rest of my life.
Amazing.
So well said.
Let us know when that benefit concert takes place, Ariana.
We’ll be there for sure.