Ariana Grande, along with Coldplay, Pharrell, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and more, are taking a stand to perform a benefit concert in honor of the victims of the Manchester terrorist attack. “One Love Manchester” will be held June 4 at the Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester.
The show of support and solidarity by Grande and other musicians and celebrities is important for many reasons. As popular public figures, these people have the power to bring mass attention to an important fact: the people of Manchester are unbroken.
This sense of community resonates worldwide, as individuals and organizations from around the globe continue to offer words of support and condolences, donations and acts of kindness in memory of the victims of the attack that took place at Ariana Grande’s concert at Manchester Arena on May 22.
This response sends a message to the perpetrators of terrorist violence that, in the face of aggression, even in pain and insufferable grief, people are not divided by our differences but united by our humanity. It is a strong stance in defiance of hate and inhumanity.
In a tweet just days after the attack, Grande shared thoughts with her fans that all Fearless Global Citizens will appreciate:
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 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.
She went on to say:
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 than we did before.
With proceeds from “One Love Manchester” going to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund, along with the public stance of Grande and other celebrities, people are rallying together to help each other, not harm. Benefit concerts like this are a public display of the power of music—which Grande described in her tweet:
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.
The response to the jarring, terrorist violence in Manchester reminds us that we are all connected in this world, and every one of us has the power to make a difference. You may not reach as many people as a famous musician, but you can raise your voice—and lead by example.
