After initial reports that she was cancelling her Dangrous Woman Tour in the aftermath of the Manchester Bombing, Ariana Grande ended up continuing on through Europe, beginning in her performance in Paris.
But now her European stretch is at an end, and Ariana has penned an emotional letter to fans.
“At the close of this European leg of my Dangerous Woman tour, I just wanted to thank you properly for the overwhelming love and support you’ve shown me, my crew, and each other during this challenging time.”
It’s good that she includes her crew in this, but not surprising — she’s a sweetheart.
“Spending this time with you this month has been so very healing and special! Thank you for being here.”
Every singer thanks fans for attending concerts, but not all of them thank fans for helping them through processing most traumatic experience of their lives.
And the Manchester bombing was definitely that for her.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity in supporting One Love Manchester and for helping the families as much as you possibly could.”
But there was still more for which Ariana was thankful.
“Thank you for bringing your absolute brightest, most passionate, contagious energy to these shows and for wiping my tears away.”
That’s a powerful image, but also certainly how she felt.
Her fans were there, cheering, some in tears of joy, as they stood in the audience in Paris and watched her perform in the concert that almost never was.
Ariana saw and it clearly touched her deeply.
“I’m immensely grateful!!!! I hope you can feel my love, wherever you are because I’m sending you all that I’ve got.”
Her recent work has been a lot more sexual, but let’s remember that one of her earlier songs — she may have even still been on Victorious at the time — were about love in an almost cartoony way.
Because she’s darling. Which is also why she dedicated her tour to the victims.
“See you so soon.”
She could have been defensive here, but her message was all about love.
We say that she could have been defensive, because Ariana’s had her detractors over the years.
It’s always been ridiculous.
Well, almost always — she did once lick some doughnuts and mutter some dumb stuff to her companion.
But, in general, she’s been attacked for being, gasp, having sexually charged lyrics! If you can imagine such a horror.
Some of her critics came out of the woodwork in the wake of the Manchester bombing.
There were those who wanted her to get, like, super Islamophobic or just generally xenophobic afterwards and condemned her for, you know, still being a good person and not literally letting the terrorists win.
(Because the rhetoric that suggests that the West is at war with Islam is the best recruiting tool for groups like Daesh)
A few people even talked about how Ariana was targeted in a super victim-blamey way.
Technically, sure, Ariana would have been less of a target if “Side to Side” were a song about being transformed into a crab and not about having so much sex that you can’t walk.
But only because she wouldn’t have been as famous and therefore probably wouldn’t have been playing there for that crowd that particular night.
Most small time terrorists don’t wait years for the perfect target — they just pick a time and a place and end a bunch of lives.
In other words: it’s not that deep.
Like mass shooters, who are literally also terrorists, it’s about lashing out at a world that they believe has treated them unfairly.
Ideology just gives them an excuse, really.
Eventually, though, even that ridiculous clown Piers Morgan apologized to Ariana Grande.
Ariana handled everything so well and very tastefully.
She didn’t make the One Love Manchester tribute all about her — inviting other artists to participate.
And she raised millions for the victims and for the Red Cross.
She visited victms in their hospital rooms and offered to pay for funeral expenses for those who didn’t make it.
Because she’s wonderful.
