The Streamy Awards paid tribute to late singer Christina Grimmie on Tuesday night.
Grimmie, who rose to fame as a contestant on season six of The Voice and was an active member of the YouTube community, was killed by a crazed fan in June during a meet-and-greet after an Orlando concert.
The tribute began with a short speech from fellow YouTube creator Shane Dawson, who tearfully told the audience about when he first met Grimmie, she told him that she didn’t start posting videos to YouTube “because of money or fame, she started because she wanted people to connect through music.”
He continued: “Her music will forever continue to make people feel accepted and not judged and not alone.”
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Following Dawson’s emotional tribute, singer Sam Tsui performed a medley that featured renditions of Grimmie’s “I Bet You Don’t Curse God,” Nelly’s “Just a Dream” and other songs. The several-minute-long segment concluded with a video of Grimmie singing her original song “With Love.”
The tribute comes after the Emmys and the Teen Choice Awards faced backlash from Grimmie’s fans for not paying tribute to the singer during their broadcasts. The Teen Choice Awards, which aired in August, was dedicated to ending gun violence and Grimmie won a posthumous award for choice web star, but she was not referenced during a special segment where victims of gun violence in Orlando, San Bernardino and Newtown were honored onstage. The Emmys, meanwhile, honored The Voice with an award for best reality competition but did not feature Grimmie during its in memorium segment.
Grimmie became an active member of the YouTube community after she started posting videos of herself performing covers in 2009 when she was 15. Her cover of Tsui’s version of “Just a Dream” was viewed more than 135 million times online. Those performances helped her rise to fame and led to her career in music.
Watch a portion of the tribute here:
Here’s a little bit of Sam Tsui’s beautiful medley, performed in tribute to Christina Grimmie #Streamys pic.twitter.com/w3gfuLj0GD
— Natalie Jarvey (@natjarv) October 5, 2016
#Streamys just played a video of Christina Grimmie singing “With Love” pic.twitter.com/2aCLfMdglS
— Natalie Jarvey (@natjarv) October 5, 2016
