Music  

Ariana Grande to resume tour in Paris amid tight security

By AFP

07 June 2017   |   1:58 pm

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US singer Ariana Grande is to resume her world tour in Paris on Wednesday, more than two weeks after it was interrupted by the Manchester suicide bomb attack.

(FILES) This file photo taken on November 20, 2016, shows US singer Ariana Grande arriving for the 2016 American Music Awards in Los Angeles, California. US pop star Ariana Grande will return to Manchester on June 4 to headline a star-studded concert in memory of the victims of the attack on her show, her publicist said on May 30, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Valerie Macon

US singer Ariana Grande is to resume her world tour in Paris on Wednesday, more than two weeks after it was interrupted by the Manchester suicide bomb attack.

Security will be extra tight in the French capital, a day after police shot and injured a man who attacked an officer outside the world-famous Notre Dame cathedral

Roads will be blocked off around the concert venue in the east of Paris while police will help security guards to check fans as they arrive for the show.

Even before Tuesday’s Notre Dame attack, police had announced a significant deployment planned for the US singer’s concert, noting its “powerful symbolic context”.

On May 22 a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing 22 people including 7 children at a concert by Grande in Manchester.

She cancelled shows she was due to give in London, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Switzerland, and returned to Florida, before returning to Manchester on Sunday to headline an all-star benefit show for victims of the attack.

Before the Paris show, her young fans said they would not give in to fear.

“I feel really anxious but I don’t want that to stop me from going. I will probably feel on edge, I hope security is tight — if there is something planned, there is not much we can do,” said Caoimhe McDonnell, a 19-year-old student from Northern Ireland living in Paris.

Clodagh Ennis, also 19, added: “I feel that not going to the concert would be letting terrorists win, that’s what they want, they want people to be scared, so still attending despite the attacks is like a protest against them.

“Personally, I am not naturally a worried person. Of course there will be the thought of ‘What if something happens?’ but I know there are probably people a lot more worried than I am.

“I do wonder what the concert will be like, will it go as normal, will it be sad, but I think the best thing to do is go and show our support for her, and try to enjoy it as much as we can.”