Ariana Grande Pens Powerful Essay After Manchester Attack: ''We Will Not Quit or Operate in Fear''

Singer promises she will not give up on her fans

By Kendall Fisher May 26, 2017 6:40 PMTags

Ariana Grande's heart may be broken following the devastating Manchester attack during her concert earlier this week, but she refuses to be broken.

The 23-year-old singer took to Twitter on Friday with a powerful message to her fans and victims of the terrorist attack that devastatingly killed 22 and injured approximately 50 people during her tour stop at the Manchester Arena. 

"My heart, prayers, and deepest condolences are with the victims of the Manchester Attack and their loved ones. There is nothing I or anyone can do to take away the pain you are feeling or to make this better," she began. "However, I extend my hand and heart and everything I possibly can give to you and yours, should you want or need my help in any way. The only thing we can do now is choose how we let this affect us and how we live our lives from here on out."

She continued, "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."

Thus, she is working to come up with a plan to move forward with her fans.

Andrew Lipovsky/NBC

"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. 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," she said.

"I'll be returning to the incredibly brave city of Manchester to spend time with my fans and to have a benefit concert in honor of and to raise money for the victims and their families," Grande revealed. "I want to thank my fellow musicians and friends for reaching out to be a part of our expression of love for Manchester. I will have details to share with you as soon as everything is confirmed."

"From the day we started putting the Dangerous Woman Tour together, I said that this show, more than anything else, was intended to be a safe space for my fans. A place for them to escape, to celebrate, to heal, to feel safe and to be themselves. To meet their friends they've made online. To express themselves," she recalled, declaring, "This will not change that."

She continued, "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."

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"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," Grande promised her fans. "We will continue in honor of the ones we lost, their loved ones, my fans, and all affected by this tragedy. They will be on my mind and in my heart every day and I will think of them with everything I do for the rest of my life."

After signing off on the essay, the pop star shared a link to a CrowdFunding campaign to raise money to benefit the victims' families and individuals injured by the attack. So far, the campaign has already raised more than $2 million.

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Grande already announced her decision to suspend the remainder of her Dangerous Woman tour (which was scheduled through Sept. 21) in order to focus all of her attention toward the victims.

"Due to the tragic events in Manchester the Dangerous Woman tour with Ariana Grande has been suspended until we can further assess the situation and pay our proper respects to those lost," Grande's management told E! News in a statement Wednesday. "We ask at this time that we all continue to support the city of Manchester and all those families affected by this cowardice and senseless act of violence. Our way of life has once again been threatened but we will overcome this together."

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She first expressed feelings of despair by breaking her silence in an emotional message shared to Twitter.  "Broken," Grande wrote. "From the bottom of my heart, I am so so sorry. I don't have words."

Meanwhile, Grande landed back in the United States via private plane less than 24 hours after the horrible incident and was greeted by boyfriend Mac Miller upon touching down in her hometown of Boca Raton, Fla. Ariana's brother Frankie Grande, other family members and her closest friends have all gathered to lend a helping hand.

As far as how the singer is coping with the ordeal, an insider previously told E! News that she is "completely shocked," adding, "This has really traumatized her. She has a really big support system and has been leaning on a few key people."

Mac Miller has been one of those pillars of strength for her. "He has been there for her during this time and is the best," the insider added of the 25-year-old rapper. "She loves him and her family likes him as well."