Ariana fights back with benefit concert

THE decision to hold a benefit concert for the victims of the Manchester attack was completely Ariana Grande’s. The 23-year-old singer,

pictured, was left devastated after a terrorist attack at her concert at Manchester Arena on May 22, which left 22 people dead and over 50 injured, but she quickly put plans in place for a benefit gig to raise money for the victims and their families.

Festival Republic’s Melvin Benn told Billboard: “The idea to host this event came from Ariana. She was very traumatised after the attack, but it was very important to her to support the victims and show a level of defiance that stands up to this bloodlust and ambivalence towards innocent individuals and tells the terrorists that they are not going to stop us.”

Ariana’s manager Scooter Braun first secured Coldplay to perform at the gig before lining up a host of stars including Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Pharrell, Usher, Take That and Niall Horan.

Benn revealed that Greater Manchester Police enthusiastically embraced the idea, as they also want to show that Manchester will “not be defeated”.

He said: “The very first call we made was to the chief constable of the Greater Manchester Police – if he had said ‘this can’t happen’ then it wouldn’t have happened. But he instead said the exact opposite and told us, ‘This is an amazing thing that Ariana wants to do and it shows we’re not defeated, we’re standing together united’, and even though it’s going to be a phenomenal amount of work, he fully embraced the idea.

“There will be more than double the security personnel, and police said they will resource this concert to an absolutely full level because they want people to feel safe attending events and visiting Manchester.”

Ariana Grande’s One Love Manchester will take place at the cricket stadium at Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester on Sunday. – Bang Showbiz

Defiance that stands up to this bloodlust