An angel cried, and her name just so happens to be Ariana Grande.
The Grammy-winning singer broke down in tears multiple times on Wednesday night at her concert in Pittsburgh, the hometown of her ex-boyfriend, the late rapper Mac Miller.
Grande, who called it quits with Miller in May 2018 after two years of dating and many more of friendship, became visibly emotional performing songs from her most recent albums that touched on their relationship.
Miller died in September from mixed drug toxicity after consuming fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol.
Before she even took the stage, Grande filled the arena with recordings of some of Miller’s greatest hits, according to concertgoers ― which has become something of a routine on her Sweetener world tour.
During the show, Grande had trouble keeping it together in the opening number “Raindrops (An Angel Cried),” which serves as the introduction on her album “Sweetener,” and a powerful meditation on grief and mourning.
But fans were ready to support her as she took a moment to collect herself, chanting, “You can do it, Ari.”
And when it came time to mention Miller on her smash hit “thank u, next,” Grande couldn’t even sing his name.
But the adoring crowd was ready to do the heavy lifting, belting out the lyric “Wish I could say, ‘Thank you’ to Malcolm / ’Cause he was an angel,” as Grande, silent, continued to dance on stage.
The singer has previously opened up about the “hell” of reliving emotional trauma on her tour, as many of her songs touch on deeply painful moments in her life.
“Making [music] is healing. performing it is like reliving it all over again and it is hell,” she tweeted in April.
Grande thanked fans for accepting her “humanness” after having a similar emotional reaction at a Washington D.C. concert in March, which fell on the six-year anniversary of her song with Miller, “The Way.”
“thanks for accepting my humanness,” she wrote in response to a fan. “it’s super emo and difficult singing some of these songs. but you make me smile.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misstated that the anniversary of Grande’s song “The Way” fell on the same day as her Buffalo, New York concert.