Amid the horrors of Sunday night's mass shooting in Las Vegas, putting on a concert full of bright pop songs might seem incongruous. But Katy Perry was not to be deterred and instead found a way during her New York City show Monday night to bring her fans closer together.
Perry, who is on her "Witness" tour, spoke to the audience between songs.
"Listen, I know it's been a tough day," she said, acknowledging the shootings. "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 very disconnected at times but I know music brings us together, and it should never be a place of fear, right?"
Speaking up at a concert has a special poignancy, as the shootings occurred during a country music festival on the Vegas strip. More than 50 people died and hundreds were injured.
Perry then asked her thousands of fans to take action, right there and then.
"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."
She continued: "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."
No question: It certainly is worth saying.
Follow Randee Dawn on Twitter.