Kevin Mazur/One Love Manchester/Getty Images for One Love Manchester(MANCHESTER, England) — Ariana Grande took the stage at her One Love Manchester benefit concert Sunday for the first time since a terror attack occurred at her concert last month.
The singer, wearing a white sweatshirt with the words “One Love Manchester” written on the front, jeans and her signature pony tail, opened her set with a performance of “Be Alright.”
She also performed her hit songs “Break Free,” “My Everything” and “The Way” with help from her boyfriend, rapper Mac Miller.
Grande helped Victoria Monet perform her song, “Better Days,” and the Black Eyed Peas sang their hit, “Where Is The Love?”
The singer, who at times got emotional during her performances, blew kisses at her fans who attended last month’s ill-fated concert. They were in a special reserved section at the front of the T-shaped stage Sunday.
“I love you so so much. Thank you so much,” she said inside Manchester’s Emirates Old Trafford venue. “Tonight is all about love.”
Scooter Braun, Grande’s manager, introduced the singer by first thanking Manchester, the U.K. city’s first responders, and the “world class artists who journeyed here on such short notice” to perform at the One Love Manchester benefit concert.
The benefit concert is being staged to raise funds for those affected by the May 22 bombing in the foyer of the Manchester Arena that killed 22 people and injured more than 100 others.
Braun said immediately after the terror attack, Grande told him: “If we do nothing, I can’t live with that. We must do something.”
“This is so beautiful. You guys made a decision. You looked fear right in the face and said, ‘No, we are Manchester and the world is watching,'” Braun continued.
Grande, 23, tweeted that she was “broken” in the immediate aftermath of the May 22 bombing that claimed the lives of 22 and wounded more than 100 at her Manchester, England, show.
However, in the days after the attack, she and Braun organized One Love Manchester — which features artists including Coldplay, Justin Bieber, and Katy Perry — in order to give back to the community.
All proceeds from the show will go to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund, which was founded by the Manchester City Council in conjunction with the British Red Cross, to aid the victims of the attack and their families.
Donations will go to the British Red Cross and may not be tax deductible. Additional fees may also apply.
The singer suspended her tour after the bombing and it will resume on June 7 in Paris. Grande was photographed touching down in England on Friday, and spent time with hospitalized fans that day.
“The way you have handled all of this has been more inspiring and made me more proud than you’ll ever know,” she wrote late last month of her “Arianators.” “The compassion, kindness, love, strength and oneness that you’ve shown one another this past week is the exact opposite of the heinous intentions it must take to pull off something as evil as what happened Monday. YOU are the opposite.”
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.