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Madonna Gives Emotional Tribute To Paris Victims, & She's Not The Only Musician This Weekend To Pay Her Respects

by Kenza Moller

After the Friday terrorist attacks in Paris — including one that took place at the Bataclan music venue where band Eagles of Death Metal was playing — many musicians cancelled their shows across Europe. Madonna, however, decided to carry on with a pre-planned concert in Stockholm, Sweden the following day, and gave a touching and poignant explanation as to why. Madonna paid tribute to the Paris victims afterwards by playing an emotional rendition of Like A Prayer.

Mid-show, Madge put her guitar down and, appearing to break down, said it had been hard to get through the show so far. "I feel torn," she said. "Why am I up here dancing and having fun when people are crying over the loss of their loved ones? However, that is exactly what these people want to do."

She went on to explain that although she'd originally planned to cancel her show, but then changed her mind. "I thought to myself, why should I give that to them? Why should I allow them to stop me and to stop us from enjoying freedom? All of the places where people were killed where places where people were having fun."

"We must start treating each and every human being with dignity and respect," she said, calling for people to be nicer to one another on a daily basis and in their small interactions. "Only love will change the world, but it's very hard to love unconditionally, very hard to love that which we do not understand, or that which is different than we are. But we have to, or this will go on and on forever."

Other celebs from the music world weighed in on the Paris attacks as well this weekend, bringing a common voice to the horrific attacks that shook the city Friday.

U2 Laid Flowers At Le Bataclan Memorial Site

U2 canceled two French concerts after the Paris attacks, both which would have taken place at the AccorHotels Arena. Instead, band members were seen laying flowers at a memorial site honoring the 89 who were killed while watching the band Eagles of Death Metal play on Friday night.

The Foo Fighters Canceled Their Tour As A Sign Of Respect

The Foo Fighters, who were scheduled to play a show at the AccorHotels Arena, decided to cancel their four remaining concerts in Europe. In a statement, they summed it up concisely: "We can't continue right now. There is no other way to say it. This is crazy and it sucks."

MGMT Shared A Heartfelt, Personal Message

On Saturday, one day after the attacks in Paris, the band MGMT took to Facebook to share their emotional reaction. "Three people instrumental in our reaching and loving France were at the Eagles of Death Metal show last night at Le Bataclan," the band wrote. They had previously played shows at the venue. They wrote about one, who made it; one who is hospitalized; and one who did not.

"We make music and play music to help make people happy," they wrote. "We all need to figure out how to make happiness win."

Indeed, we do.

Images: Guy Oseary/YouTube; CNN/Twitter; Marianne van Meel/Flickr; Aurelien Guichard/Flickr; Digitas Photos/Flickr.