Daily Times

Ariana Grande expressed deep grief in a typed-out statement that she posted via Twitter on Friday.

This is the pop singer’s first public address since she Tweeted on Monday after a suicide bomber detonated a bomb outside of her Manchester Arena concert. The explosion killed 22 people and injured 59 others.

“I have been thinking of my fans and of you all non stop over the past week. The way you have handled all of this has been more inspiring and made me more proud than you’ll ever know,” the singer wrote. “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 on Monday. You are the opposite. I am sorry for the pain and fear that you must be feeling and for the trauma that you, too, must be experiencing.”

Grande also announced that she will perform a Manchester benefit concert in honour of the victims and their families, but did not mention a specific date. Grande encouraged people to donate to a fund to help support the families of those harmed in the attack.

Grande was scheduled to perform two concerts at London’s O2 Arena during the same week as the attack. Those shows are cancelled. Five more shows – May 28 in Antwerp, May 31 and June 1 in Lodz, Poland, June 3 in Frankfurt and June 5 in Zurich – are also cancelled.

As of press time, Grande’s next date is on June 7 at Paris’ AccorHotels Arena, one of six concerts remaining on her European itinerary. From there, Grande is scheduled for a nine-date trek through South America and Mexico on June 29, followed by tours of Southeast Asia and Australia. Following the tragedy in Manchester, the singer Tweeted, “Broken. From the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry. I don’t have words.” Grande reportedly returned to her home in Boca Raton, Florida in the aftermath of the attack.