Ariana Grande’s manager Scooter Braun has posted an emotional series of tweets reflecting on the deadly attack at the singer’s concert in Manchester.
22 people — including children and teenagers — were killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives as the audience was leaving Grande’s show at Manchester Arena on Monday night.
Braun urged his four million Twitter followers not to give in to terrorism, but to continue living their lives with “freedom and joy,” and paid tribute to those who died.
The record label boss wrote that he’d just arrived home and taken his parents out to dinner, explaining “I experienced joy for the first time in days.”
He pledged to honor the victims of the attack by “laughing, loving and living.”
Fear, Braun wrote, “cannot rule the day” though he acknowledged that he was angry about what had happened.
He also shared a defiant message for those responsible for the attack, insisting the bomber had failed in his attempt to cause fear. “All you did was make us appreciate every day,” he posted.
He offered support to other victims of violence, telling the “children of Syria” and the victims and survivors of a suicide bombing in Jakarta on May 24 “I stand with you.”
In the hours following the blast, Grande tweeted that she was “broken” by what had happened to her fans and their families, adding “from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry.”
Grande suspended her “Dangerous Woman” tour after the attack. Her next concert was to have taken place on May 25, in London.
On Thursday, Braun insisted that the way forward was to fight “extraordinary evil” with “extraordinary greatness.”
Braun also manages singer Justin Bieber, who is scheduled to perform in the UK in June and July.
Bieber’s fans have posted on Twitter in recent days, pleading with Braun to cancel the scheduled tour dates, citing safety concerns.