HOPE AFTER HORROR Ariana Grande’s all-star Manchester One Love benefit unites a nation.
One Love show Ariana Grande’s all-star Manchester benefit unites a nation and paves the way for healing
Onstage alongside music’s brightest lights at the One Love Manchester benefit concert on June 4, 13 days after a terrorist killed 22 people at her Dangerous Woman show, Ariana Grande was in fine voice. Dressed down in ripped jeans, the star sang hits including “Where is the Love?” with the Black Eyed Peas, and her own dance ballad “One Last Time”, now an anthem for her grief-stricken fans.
Yet amid the tears and raw emotion, the atmosphere was one of defiant joy. At first a more sombre night had been planned, explained Grande to the audience, but a meeting with the mother of Olivia Campbell, 15, who lost her life in the attack, changed its course. “I started crying and gave her a big hug and she said, ‘You should stop crying,’ because Olivia wouldn’t want me to cry … Olivia would have wanted to hear the hits,” she recounted. “That means we have a totally different show planned … Are you all ready to have some fun?”
In response, the 50,000-strong crowd raised their voices as one in song, in remembrance of those who had been silenced and as a powerful testimony to the healing power of music—a triumph of hope over hatred. “The kind of love and unity that you’re displaying is the medicine that the world really needs right now,” said a choked-up Grande.
For the singer, 23, the star-studded benefit also marked a turning point in her own healing journey. In the wake of suicide bomber Salman Ramadan Abedi’s deadly strike at her Manchester show last month, Grande was “traumatised,” a source told WHO, but her “focus is the victims.” Grande was “broken,” she shared in a stark tweet as the news spread. “From the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry. I don’t have words.” As reports swirled that Grande was so deeply shaken by the carnage she was considering quitting music, the star sought solace with loved ones. Grande “is absolutely crushed and devastated,” another insider told WHO. “She can’t believe this happened. She just wants to be with her family.”
The day after the May 22 attack, Grande and her mother, Joan, who had helped usher young fans to safety after the explosion, returned home to Boca Raton, Florida, where Grande was reunited with her boyfriend, rapper Mac Miller. The next day, her management team announced her Dangerous Woman tour had been suspended, “to pay our proper respects to those lost.” Yet even then, Grande was coming up with another way to honour the fallen—the youngest victim was Saffie Rose Roussos, 8—and raise money in their names. Perhaps she was also inspired by Georgia father-of-three Patrick Millsaps, 44, who sent her an open letter (retweeted by Grande and Taylor Swift, among other stars) encouraging her to “sing again,” as “music is the international language of peace.”
On May 27, Grande released a heartfelt statement on social media announcing plans for
the benefit concert in Manchester. “I extend my hand and heart and everything I possibly can give to you and yours,” Grande promised victims and their families. “We won’t let hate win. I don’t want to go the rest of the year without being able to see and hold and uplift my fans, the same way they continue to uplift me,” she wrote. “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.” In the lead-up to the June 4 show, it became apparent just how instrumental the singer was in pulling together the mammoth gig brimming with A-listers in mere days. “I didn’t anticipate Ariana wanting to step forward and play a concert so soon after the tragedy,” Melvin Benn of Festival Republic, one of two promoters contracted, told Variety. “For such a young woman to have the bravery to stand up and do that ... By coming back, not just to get onstage, but to get back onstage in the city where it’s happened—it’s inspiring.” That also summed up Grande’s June 2 hospital visit with children who were injured at her concert, including Lily Harrison, 8, who was hit by shrapnel and fractured her shoulder blade. Her parents, Adam Harrison and Lauren Thorpe, who were also hurt in the blast, shared photos of Lily and Grande hugging. “What Ariana
Grande did tonight was so selfless and amazing,” Thorpe told WHO. “Lily looked on cloud nine.” Grande returned the praise: “I’m so proud of you,” she told the kids. “You are so strong.”
On the eve of the benefit concert, Grande, her fellow musicians and fans would need all the strength they could muster, as news broke of yet another terrorist incident, this time in London (see p. 18). But no-one was backing down. “We plan to honour [the victims of both attacks] with courage, bravery and defiance in the face of fear,” said Grande’s manager, Scooter Braun. “Today’s One Love Manchester benefit concert will not only continue, but will do so with greater purpose.” As fans began arriving, it was clear they felt the same. “I have to be here because I want to help,” concert-goer Kiera Kearney, 14, told WHO. “Whatever happens, nothing must defeat us.“
And then it was show time, with Marcus Mumford taking the stage at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground before introducing local heroes, Take That (minus Robbie Williams, who performed separately, and struggled to maintain his composure as he sang “Angels”). The big names rolled on—and on. “I don’t smell, hear or feel any fear, all I feel is love and positivity,” declared Pharrell Williams. After her duet of “Happy” with Williams, Miley Cyrus—she also sang the Crowded House classic “Don’t Dream It’s over” with Grande—sent out a call for compassion: “The most important responsibility we have on this planet is to take care of one another. Look what we’re doing together!”
The One Love theme gained momentum, with stars including Coldplay, Liam Gallagher, Niall Horan, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber—he urged the crowd to chant the word “Love”— helping to make it a night to remember. To close the show, Grande performed a soaring rendition of “Over the Rainbow”, as the tears flowed, on and off the stage. Standing strong in the face of fresh hate, the concert raised $4.7 million for the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund, and gave the ring of truth to Katy Perry’s words: “It’s not always easy to choose love, especially in moments like these,” the pop queen told cheering fans. “Love conquers fear and love conquers hate. This love that you choose will give you strength and is our biggest power.”