Ariana Grande celebrated the industrious spirit of Manchester by having a tattoo of the city’s symbol—a worker bee—tattooed on her arm backstage after her inspirational anti-terror gig staged in the city Sunday night.
And Grande has proved she is no workshy slouch herself, with her world tour restarting in Paris on Wednesday night.
Grande dashed home after a suicide bomber killed 22 people at the end of her gig in the city on May 22. She spent several days in Boca Raton, Florida, with her family. There was speculation that she would retreat from public performances after she took to Twitter shortly afterward to say she was "broken" adding, “I don’t have words.”
However less than two weeks later, on Sunday night, Grande proved her mettle and delivered a stunning and emotional performance in Manchester, at a remarkable benefit gig to raise funds for survivors of the tragedy.
Grande’s single “One Last Time” has been re-released to raise funds for the No. 1 song this week.
She also surprised victims of the attack still being treated at a local children’s hospital on Friday. The pop star posted photos of her unexpected visit to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital on her Instagram page, with her young fans smiling as she offered them hugs in their hospital beds.
And on Tuesday, The Sun reports that Grande and her team were joined backstage after the show by artists from local tattoo company Manchester Ink to have tattoos of Manchester bees—a symbol of the city, paying homage to its industrial past and its reputation as center of industry.
In the 1800s Manchester was awash with textile mills that were commonly described as “hives of activity” and the workers inside them were frequently compared to bees.
Grande closed out the Manchester event, which also featured a host of other artists performing, with a powerful rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”—which left her brother Frankie in floods of tears, according to The Sun’s backstage reporter.
He told the paper: “She seems calm out there because that’s her in her element. That’s what she was born to do. She is strong, so much stronger than anyone thought. She’s strong for her fans.”
Ticket holders were requested to not bring bags to the concert as Manchester continues to maintain a state of high emergency.
The gig was the biggest TV spectacle of the year in the U.K. with 14.5 million viewers tuning in to BBC1. It also broke streaming records with more than a million requests to watch it live on the BBC website and a further 73 million streaming it through Ariana’s Facebook account.