NEW YORK – Hours after she died, Christina Grimmie’s face still beamed from a selfie video she had posted online inviting everyone to be there for her concert Friday night.
“Please come out!” the young singer said, then added with an effervescent lilt, “Bye!”
Minutes after that Orlando, Florida, performance – Grimmie’s last – she was shot as she signed autographs.
Thus a deadly, senseless attack cut down a star on the ascent at age 22, while leaving fans horrified and at least one fellow singer shaken at the danger that being in the public eye can represent: “Now I’m scared to do meet-and-greets,” tweeted country artist RaeLynn who, like Grimmie, competed on “The Voice.”
Grimmie was most widely known from those appearances on “The Voice” two years ago, when she rocked listeners with her renditions of songs including “Wrecking Ball” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” and finished third.
“I’m shocked she didn’t actually win season six,” said “Voice” host Carson Daly on the “Today” show Saturday.
But by then, Grimmie was already a show-biz veteran and YouTube star.
Her level of talent and dedication was “a dangerous combination,” her brother, Marcus Grimmie, proudly told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2014.
It was he who would heroically tackle Kevin James Loibl, the 27-year-old gunman who had opened fire on her, after which Loibl shot and killed himself.
