While many musicians, including U2 and Foo Fighters, have canceled tour dates in the wake of the devastating terror attacks on Paris Friday, Madonna carried on with her Stockholm show on Saturday, and broke down in tears as she explained why.

The megastar said she did originally think about canceling the show that night, but reconsidered after some thought. “Why should I give that to them?” she asked the audience, choked up. “Why should I allow them to stop me — to stop us — from enjoying freedom?”

Madonna continued to reason through her emotions as an audience of thousands listened in silence.

 “It's been very hard for me to get through this show up to this point,” she said. “Why am I up here dancing and having fun when people are crying over the loss of their loved ones?”

“That is exactly what these people want to do,” she went on. “They want to shut us up. They want to silence us. And we won't let them. Because there is power in unity and I do believe that as much chaos and pain and senseless violence and terrorism that occurs around this world — not just in Paris — as much as that does occur, there is more goodness in this world. We are here to prove it.”

After a call for a moment of silence for the victims, still wiping away tears, the singer launched into an acoustic version of “Like a Prayer” before the song picked up with more instrumentals.

Madonna posted about the show on Facebook later that night, saying she felt like they were “turning darkness into light.”

Source: Variety