Pop star Ariana Grande opened her cross-country Honeymoon tour Thursday night in Tampa, Florida, and took a moment during her performance to bolster her apology over an incident at a California doughnut shop earlier this month.
“I’m so grateful to be here in Tampa!” Grande said during a break in her performance at Amalie Arena. “And I’m so, so grateful to be here performing in the USA, the greatest country in the world! I love you guys so much!”
In an apology statement released shortly after video of the incident went viral, Grande said she is “EXTREMELY proud to be an American and I’ve always made it clear that I love my country.” In a follow-up video, Grande said she’s “never been prouder to be an American” due to all the “wonderful progressive things that have been going on” over the last several months.
The pop singer’s fans are apparently ready to forgive and forget; according to the Tampa Tribune, one fan outside the concert held up a sign that read “I could be your doughnut” alongside a picture of a sprinkled doughnut.
Wolfee Donuts owner Joe Marin has said he wants charges pressed against Grande over the doughnut-licking. But Marin told Breitbart News earlier this week that police have said they cannot find a crime under California law with which to charge her.
The doughnut shop incident does not appear to have hurt Grande’s ticket sales, at least for her tour opener. A representative from Amalie Arena told Breitbart News that 7,934 people (mostly “enthusiastic teenage girls,” according to the Tribune) attended Thursday night’s concert, slightly off from the venue’s maximum concert capacity of 8,024.
Perhaps that’s why Grande praised America as the greatest country in the world – it’s the country where pop stars can say or do anything to the “little people” without facing any consequences.