Next year, Ariana Grande will return to Manchester for an emotional concert as part of her Sweetener European tour.

The singer will return in 2019 to the city where a terror attack targeted her concert on 22 May, 2017, killing 22 people and injuring a further 129 of her fans. Grande will perform in a very special, one-off concert as part of the UK leg of her European tour. Though no details are available yet, Grande confirmed the news in a message to her fans on Instagram stories after some questioned the absence of Manchester on the list of Sweetener tour dates in 2019.

“We need a bit more time getting things together before we can announce that date, but we are, of course, coming and we love you,” Grande said.

The tour will kick off in New York on 18 March before travelling across America and Canada over the following months, jumping to London on 17 August and taking in Paris, Antwerp, Vienna, Hamburg and Prague before returning to the UK in September, with dates in Birmingham, Glasgow and Sheffield. The tour will finish up on 13 October in Zurich.

Somewhere in the UK leg of the tour – between 9 September and 22 September – Grande will hold her “special” concert in Manchester.

This will mark the second time Grande has performed in the city after the terror attacks. The singer returned a month after the attacks, alongside Miley Cyrus, Coldplay, Robbie Williams and Justin Bieber, to headline the One Love benefit concert, which raised £17 million for victims and their families.

She penned the track Get Well Soon as a tribute to the victims of the Manchester attack, telling Beats 1 Radio that the song is “about being there for each other and helping each other through scary times and anxiety… I just wanted to do something to make people feel good and less alone. I just wanted to give people a hug musically.” 

Since the 2017 terror attacks, Grande has been vocal about her struggles with anxiety and PTSD. She describes the months following the attack as some of the most difficult of her life, “where I felt so upside down” and in which she “cried endlessly” and had “wild dizzy spells” and shortness of breath, according to Elle.

Speaking to British Vogue, Grande said: “It’s hard to talk about because so many people have suffered such severe, tremendous loss. But, yeah, it’s a real thing. I know those families and my fans, and everyone there experienced a tremendous amount of it as well.”

“Time is the biggest thing. I feel like I shouldn’t even be talking about my own experience — like I shouldn’t even say anything. I don’t think I’ll ever know how to talk about it and not cry.”

Where will Ariana Grande perform on tour? 

17 August: London, O2 Arena

19 August: London, O2 Arena 

14 September: Birmingham Arena

17 September: Glasgow, SSE Hydro

19 September: Sheffield, FlyDSA Arena

22 September: Dublin, 3Arena​

When do tickets for Ariana Grande’s Sweetener tour go on sale?

Tickets for the London dates are on sale now via AXS.

Images: Getty