Tonight, Katy Perry performed in New York City for her Witness tour and took a couple minutes during the concert to share some words of hope and encouragement following last night's horrific Las Vegas shooting, where one gunman killed over 50 people and wounded over 400 attending a music festival.
"I want to take this moment right now for Las Vegas here tonight," she started. "Listen, I know it's been a tough day. But music is special. It's magic. It's something that unites us. There's a community here that we need to take care of, that we need to surround, that we need to lift up, and I know that we all feel really disconnected at times but I know music brings us together, and it should never be a place of fear, right?"
Perry then brought the crowd together: "I'm going to do a little exercise because you know, we all think we're connected by all the likes and the posts and stuff like that but sometimes we forget we need to touch each other," she said. "We need to see each other. We need to communicate with each other. So just like one of those hippie dippie exercises, turn to your right or your left and if you don't know the person next to you, introduce yourself and say hello. Maybe shake their hand! And if you have the guts, just say 'I love you!' …No one's going to steal our joy. No one's going to wilt our flowers or clip our wings. No one's going to take our power from us."
Right before her Las Vegas speech, Perry made a wish for world peace alongside a young girl from the audience she brought up, Island, in a particularly touching moment. "We're going to make it [our one wish] for world peace right now," she said. "I know it sounds cliche, right, Island? But I think there's a lot of people out there that who are hurting tonight especially, and we want some peace in this world. We want harmony, and some kindness, and some tolerance and some acceptance, right, Island?"
Watch her full speech below:
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
