Love all around: Thousands see stars at concert to aid victims of Manchester attack.

Singer’s tears on emotional evening which also saw performances from host of music stars

Ariana Grande has said she was inspired to change her set list for the One Love Manchester benefit concert after the mother of one of the teenage victims said her daughter would have wanted to hear the hits.

Grande appeared on stage at the Emirates Old Trafford cricket ground in an an oversized white One Love Manchester sweatshirt and seemed overcome by emotion at points as she was joined by a string of musical stars for the concert which so far has raised at least £2 million towards the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund.

Before launching into her hit Side To Side, Grande told the crowd: “I want to thank you so much for coming tonight and being so happy and strong and unified. I love you guys so much.

“This night is the kind of thing the world really needs right now.”

Grande said she had not planned to play so many of her big hits but changed her mind after meeting the mother of Olivia Campbell-Hardy, 15, who was among the victims of the blast that killed 22 people at at her concert last week.

She said: “I had the pleasure of meeting Olivia’s mummy a few days ago and I started to cry and gave her a big hug and she said ‘stop crying, because Olivia wouldn’t have wanted you to cry’.

“And then she told me Olivia would have wanted to hear the hits. We had a different show planned and we had a rehearsal yesterday and we changed everything.”

Mumford and Sons frontman Marcus Mumford opened the show as he performed an acoustic version of the band’s hit Timshel.

Grande joined Black Eyed Peas to perform their hit Where Is The Love?

The show also saw performances from stars including Take That, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Pharrell Williams, Little Mix and a surprise appearance from Liam Gallagher.

Afterwards Grande returned to the stage where she was joined by all of the musicians on the bill as she sang her song One Last Time saying: “Manchester, I love you with all my heart.”

She then stood alone on stage to sing Over The Rainbow before breaking down in tears in front of the crowd of 50,000 music fans.

Manchester, I love you with all my heart. ARIANA GRANDE

Pictures: PA. Ariana Grande performs during the One Love Manchester benefit concert at the Emirates Old Trafford where she was joined by a host of international music stars including, right from top, Robbie Williams, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry.