For the first time since 2017, Ariana Grande returned to Manchester and it was an emotional experience for the singer.
Two years after a bombing killed 22 people after her concert, Grande returned to play Manchester Pride, a concert celebrating the LGBTQ community. “Thank you so much. I’m sorry. I’m so nervous,” she told the crowd. “I had so much more to say, but I’m, like, very overwhelmed. Thank you and I love you.”
Grande said that playing Pride, which is her first show in the city since the 2017 One Love Manchester benefit, meant a lot to her since she has always felt a connection to the queer community. “The gays have always had my heart personally,” she said, per E! News. “I spent some of the happiest times of my teenage years singing in gay bars in New York City. I was in a Broadway show and whenever I’d finish a show I’d just go to a gay bar and sing Whitney Houston covers until someone would ask me to leave.”
Grande closed out her set with a special acoustic version of “One Last Time.” Those in attendance help Grande sing the track off 2014’s My Everything.
Watch videos from Grande’s Manchester show below.