Instead of a planned “moment of silence” during the opening of Sunday night’s Billboard Music Awards, Texas-born Kelly Clarkson, who hosted the show, paid an emotional tribute to the victims of Friday’s high-school shooting in , with a plea for “a moment of action.”
Barely able to hold back tears as she immediately went off-script, Clarkson, standing against a dark background, said, “This is gonna be so hard… I’m a girl and my home state had so much heartbreak over this past year, and once again, y’all, we’re grieving for kids who have died for just no reason at all.”
Although the show’s producers had initially planned something a little different than what transpired, Clarkson explained, “They wanted me to say that, obviously, we want to pray for all the victims, we want to pray for all their families. But they also wanted me to do a moment of silence, and I’m so sick of moment of silence. It’s not working, obviously.”
Our hearts go out to all the victims in the Santa Fe community and their families. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/7ejLAd8nKk
— Billboard Music Awards (@BBMAs) May 21, 2018
While at the same time apologizing for her emotional demeanor, Clarkson noted, “Why don’t we do a moment of change? Why don’t we change what’s happening? Because it’s horrible.”
Later in the show, singers Shawn Mendes and Khalid performed a song called “Youth” with the show choir from ‘s , the site of a February 14th shooting in which 14 students and three staff members were killed.
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