After the terror attack that killed 22 audience members at Ariana Grande's Manchester concert this May, the singer flew to Florida to see her mom and her boyfriend Mac Miller. But she didn't stay there for long. The following month, she was back in Manchester for a benefit concert to help the bombing's victims, and then she got back to her Dangerous Woman tour.
The strength she showed, however, belied the fact that the incident severely traumatized her. In a new interview with Coveteur, she got more honest than ever before about what the aftermath of the Manchester attack was like.
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"I don’t think I’ve been through anything as traumatic as [what] we’ve been through," she said, trying not to cry. But she knew she had to continue her tour anyway. "Calling it off and going home was not an option," she explained. "The message of the show was too important. For the crew and everyone involved, it’s become more than just a show for us. We are really grateful to be here and really grateful for this show." She added, however, that she wanted to devote some time to her health after the tour was over.
She's been expressing this attitude ever since the bombing. Melvin Benn, managing director of Festival Republic, which produced the Manchester benefit concert, told Billboard that though Grande was "traumatized," she wanted to show "a level of defiance that stands up to this bloodlust."
In this spirit, she posted a statement on Twitter after the bombing to let her fans know she refused to be defeated. "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," she wrote. "We will not quit or operate in fear. We won't let this divide us. We won't let hate win."
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