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Although Ariana Grande has been open about the bombing that killed 22 people after her concert last year, it’s still hard to imagine how horrifying that experience must have been for her. But in a new interview with Elle, Ariana (and her mom, Joan) opened up about what happened that horrible night and how it’s affected their lives since.
Immediately after the bombing, Ariana visited survivors in the hospital and returned to perform at her One Love Manchester benefit concert to raise money for the victims. But what happened the night itself? According to Joan, she was just trying to get to the stage where her daughter was when the bomb first went off, even though everyone else in the venue was rushing through the doors to escape.
“I didn’t know where I was going. I just knew I was going to my daughter,” Joan told the magazine. “Not to be overly dramatic — I struggle with this every day — but I didn’t know what I would find when I got to her. I sympathize with every parent who was waiting for a child. Those minutes when you don’t know what’s happening… there are no words.”
That night, they flew back home to Florida, where Joan said Ariana barely spoke for two days.
“It was two or three in the morning; she crawled into bed and said, ‘Mom, let’s be honest, I’m never not going to sing again. But I’m not going to sing again until I sing in Manchester first,'” Joan explained.
And when Ariana opened up to Elle about what the experience was like for her, it sounds like it’s been truly life-changing. But honestly, how could something like that not be?
“You see it on the news, you tweet the hashtag. It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again,” Ariana said. “It makes you sad, you think about it for a little, and then people move on. But experiencing something like that firsthand, you think of everything differently… Everything is different.”
But to her, it was obvious that she had to get back out there and perform. Ari and Joan called her manager, Scooter Braun and put together the benefit concert. They called in several other famous performers – including Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Little Mix, and Coldplay – and Ariana got up and sung for the first time since the attack on May 22, 2017. She sang her hits such as “Be Alright,” “Break Free,” “One Last Time,” and a cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
“Why would I second-guess getting on a f*cking stage and being there for them? That city, and their response? That changed my life,” she added.
It has been amazing to see how incredibly well Ariana has dealt with what was such a traumatic experience for her and so many other people, though she has admitted she’s developed PTSD from the attack. It was obviously an unthinkable event, but she’s definitely been there for her fans in the worst of circumstances — and she deserves so much credit for her bravery in getting back out there and performing again just two weeks later.
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