2017 Manchester AO Arena Bombing

The symbol for the associated campaign

The 2017 Manchester Arena bombing was a suicide bombing that happened at the end of Ariana Grande's concert for the Dangerous Woman Tour in Manchester, England on May 22, 2017.

Background

Ariana embarked on the Dangerous Woman Tour on February 3, 2017. She finished the first leg of the tour on April 15, 2017 and began the second leg on May 8, 2017 to go through June. The tour was in support of her third studio album, released on May 20, 2016, Dangerous Woman.

Bombing

The Manchester concert took place at Manchester Arena on Monday, May 22, 2017. As the concert finished around 22:30 BST (a few minutes after Ariana had finished the final, encore song "Dangerous Woman"), a loud bang was heard from inside the arena. An intentional suicide bomber had exploded a bomb in the foyer of the arena. The explosion, along with nails and bolts from inside the bomb, injured around 116 people, some fatally. A total of 23 people, including the bomber, Salman Abedi, were killed in the incident. Ariana, the opening acts (BIA & Victoria Monét), and the crew were not harmed.

Aftermath

In the early morning of May 23, 2017, Ariana posted a tweet on Twitter the following day, "broken. from the bottom of my heart, I am so so sorry. I don't have words." She flew back to her hometown of Boca Raton, Florida to be with Joan, Mac and other family/friends. The rest of the tour, until June 5, was canceled.

Ariana came back to Manchester on June 2, 2017 to visit fans in the hospital and two days later held a benefit concert, One Love Manchester on June 4, 2017 at Old Trafford Cricket Ground.

One Love Manchester

Main article: One Love Manchester

On June 4, Ariana Grande hosted a benefit concert in Manchester, entitled "One Love Manchester" at Old Trafford Cricket Ground that was broadcast live on television, radio and social media. At the concert, Grande performed along with several other artists. Free tickets were offered to those who attended the show on May 22. One Love Manchester benefit concert raised $13 million for victims of the attack. At the entrance of the venue, plenty of armed security guards were provided to avoid any possible attacks.

Impact

• James Corden, host of The Late Late Show, took time to speak out about the bombings in Manchester and taped a message to the viewers of the show.
• Shawn Mendes dedicated the start of his show in Paris to the Manchester Bombings and played "One Last Time" whilst projecting a photo of the ribbon symbolizing the events. In the following May he released an empowering song with Khalid called "Youth."
• Fans set free pink balloons into the sky in remembrance of all those who were lost in many cities of the world.
• Harry Styles asked the audience for a minute of silence to remember the victims during his show in Mexico.
• Many people from Manchester came together to leave flowers, balloons and many heartfelt messages.
• Many of Ariana's friends including Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Camila Cabello, Kim Kardashian and other celebrities posted their photos with Ariana and showed a lot of love and support for her and everyone involved.
• Miley Cyrus dedicated and performed her single "Malibu" to Ariana and bombing victims on The Voice.
• Outline Apparel, an online clothing shop, sold t-shirts in which all profits went towards the families of the victims.
• The cast of Once Upon A Time made all of their account's profile photos a picture of themselves with 18-year-old Georgina Callander, one of the victims who had met the cast and sadly passed away from her injures in the attack.
• Queen Elizabeth II went to hospitals to visit some of the victims.

See also

• Better Days
• Somewhere Over The Rainbow