The One Love Manchester concert was held today in England to benefit the victims of the May 22 bombing outside of an Ariana Grande concert that left 22 people dead and 119 injured, and it featured a number of powerful and emotional performances from a number of huge music stars—particularly Grande herself. Despite the attack that inspired the event and the more recent attack in London, the concert was more about love and optimism than fear or sorrow, and pretty much all of the artists who showed up made a point to play songs about standing strong in the face of adversity and other uplifting messages. Mumford & Sons kicked it off, with Marcus Mumford playing an acoustic version of the song “Timshel,” which features the line, “you are not alone in this, together we will stand and we’ll hold your hand.”
Pharrell Williams also stopped by, singing “Happy” alongside Miley Cyrus:
Justin Bieber took some time after his set to make a tearful speech:
Ariana Grande eventually took the stage herself, singing “Where Is The Love” with the Black Eyed Peas:
And her song “My Everything” with a high school choir:
Chris Martin from Coldplay stopped by to sing “Don’t Look Back In Anger,” which has become an anthem for the people of Manchester—partly due to the fact that it was written by Manchester’s own Noel Gallagher:
Speaking of, Noel’s brother Liam Gallagher later hopped onstage to sing “Live Forever” with Martin:
The most powerful moment of the show came right at the end, when Grande took the stage by herself for a very emotional performance of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow:
You can see more highlights at this Entertainment Weekly post.