‘The kind of love and unity that you’re displaying is the kind of medicine that the world really needs right now’
Ariana Grande hosted a benefit concert in Manchester on Sunday night, just two weeks after her concert in Manchester Arena was targeted by a suicide bomber.
The ‘One Love’ concert was put together in a week, raising money for the victims of the terrorist attack, remembering the 22 people killed and bringing together the people of Manchester.
Performing in front of a 50,000-strong crowd at the city’s Old Trafford cricket ground, Ariana took to the stage joined by some of the biggest names in music.
Among the performers were Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Coldplay, Take That, Robbie Williams, Imogen Heap, the Black Eyed Peas, Niall Horan, Little Mix and even Liam Gallagher. Ariana’s boyfriend, Mac Miller, even joined her on stage at one point to duet with her on the song, The Way.
Addressing the crowd, Ariana announced: ‘I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here today. I want to thank you so much for coming together and being so loving and strong and unified. I love you guys so much and I think that the kind of love and unity you’re displaying is the kind of medicine that the world really needs right now.’
Less than 24 hours after Saturday night’s terrorist attack in London Bridge, the concert was particularly poignant, with Marcus Mumford opening the night with a minute’s silence before playing Timshel on his guitar. An empowering line-up followed by the artists in attendance, from The Black Eyed Peas teaming up with Ariana Grande to sing Where is the Love? and Katy Perry performing Roar to Coldplay dedicating their cover of Don’t Look Back in Anger to Ariana Grande and the victims.
The evening is said to have raised over £2 million, with all of the performers working for free.
‘Last night, this nation was challenged, and you had a decision to make whether to come out here tonight,’ Ariana’s manager Scooter Braun announced to the crowd. ‘You looked fear in the face and said, “No. This is Manchester...” Manchester, your bravery is our hope.’
Sharing a story about meeting a 15-year old victim of the Manchester attacks who had lost his friend at the concert, Scooter talked about Adam and recounted the words that he had said: ‘He said “Scooter, make sure you tell them, don’t got forward in anger, love spreads.”’
Scooter continued: ‘Adam, if you’re watching, you’re our hero tonight.’
‘Evil will test us. It will show its face again. But because of you, as a worldwide community, we will be fearless, we will be great and we will honour our children. We owe it to them to be brave... Hatred will never win, fear will never divide us, because on this day we all stood with Manchester.’
