Lauren Daigle postponed a planned concert to preview songs from her upcoming third studio album on Monday night (March 27) in order to host a prayer vigil for the victims of a mass shooting at Nashville’s The Covenant School.
“Today’s shooting is truly heartbreaking for our Nashville community and all of those impacted,” the Christian pop singer said in a statement. “I’m going to postpone my performance tonight, and in its place, host a community-wide Prayer Vigil. To everyone who was planning to come out, please continue to come join us as we share in a time of prayer and worship to honor the victims and everyone in need.”
Daigle was slated to preview her upcoming self-titled album (May 12) at the Marathon Music Works on Monday night; the show is now scheduled for April 5. Instead, the venue hosted a free-to-all community-wide prayer vigil to honor the three nine-year-old children and three school staff members who were killed during Monday’s mass shooting in which the shooter — armed with two semi-automatic long guns, a pistol and tactical gear — was killed by police 14 minutes after the rampage began at the private Christian school in Nashville.
A number of Nashville musicians spoke out in grief and anger after the nation’s 132nd mass shooting so far this year. Singer-songwriter-musician Charlie Worsham wrote via his Instagram Stories, “It seems impossible to find fitting words to say about the shooting in Nashville today. I’m heartbroken and enraged that we can’t seem to provide the simplest, most common-sense safeguards for our own children. If this was something other than a gun problem, it’d be happening all over the world. But it only seems to happen here.”
Kelsea Ballerini, who has previously spoken with Billboard about her own experience surviving a school shooting when she was a high school sophomore, shared via Instagram Stories, “i’m heartbroken i’m triggered i’m angry and i’m terrified for the loss we continue to have in this country due to guns. three f**king kids. what are we doing.”
In a stark post last Monday night, Justin Timberlake tweeted out a list of the victims, which included three fourth grade children and three adults in their 60s.
See Daigle’s statement and Timberlake’s post below.