Entertainment

Adam Levine Shouldering Burial Expenses For ‘The Voice’ Ex-Contestant Christina Grimmie

Published on: June 15, 2016 at 1:57 AM
By Val Powell

Maroon 5 frontman and The Voice coach Adam Levine has offered to shoulder Christina Grimmie’s burial cost. The former reality TV star was tragically shot down by a crazed man during a meet-and-greet session with her fans in Plaza Live Theater.

There’s now a GoFundMe campaign, set up by the former The Voice contestant’s manager, in order to help the family defray the costs of her burial.

To date, the campaign already generated $140,489 from the over 5,000 people who donated.

However, Adam Levine stepped up and offered to take care of the funeral expenses.

“I found out this morning, that Adam Levine personally called my mother and said he will pay for the funeral and her plane flight, and I was blown away,” Christina Grimmie’s brother, Marcus, wrote on his Facebook page.

“Now a friend just told me to look at the gofundme page and I see it is at 100k. Words cannot express…literally I have no words.”

He also promised to read every message that fans are writing on Christina Grimmie’s wall as he was “blown away” by all the support the family is getting in light of the tragedy.

Marcus Grimmie also started an online petition through the Change.org asking Nintendo to include Christina Grimmie in the upcoming Legend of Zelda reportedly set to release in 2017 as a tribute. The former The Voice contestant’s YouTube’s handle is “ZeldaxLove64” as a testament of her love for the game.

Grimmie’s gunman was identified as Kevin James Loibl, a resident of St. Petersburg in Florida. While his motives are unknown, this wouldn’t be the first time that a fan harmed the object of his obsession. For example, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, better known as Selena, was killed by the president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar in March 1995.

Of course, there’s John Lennon who was shot down by Mark David Chapman in December 1980.

For now, police are still baffled as to the motives of Loibl as his computer records and other personal effects didn’t really show traces that would lead them to believe that he was targeting Christina Grimmie, who died hours later at the hospital.

Meanwhile, Adam Levine sent out a statement following the tragic shooting of Christina Grimmie as The Voice mentor said that he and his wife “are absolutely devastated and heartbroken” by the news.

“Our hearts go out to her family. Christina was a natural, a gifted talent that comes along so rarely. She was taken from us too soon,” the statement by Adam Levine reads. “This is yet another senseless act of extreme violence. I am left stunned and confused how these things can conceivably continue to happen in our world.”

Adam Levine’s statement rings true considering Christina Grimmie’s potential to be one of the great singers of her generation. Even before her stint on The Voice, she was already a YouTube sensation because of her amazing covers.

Emily Yahr wrote for The Washington Post and said that although she didn’t win it all, the singer was an obvious standout in The Voice even from the very first moment she walked on stage during the Blind Auditions of Season 6.

“It’s not an easy feat, especially because the series features a ton of artists in the early ‘blind audition’ episodes when singers try to impress the four coaches, who have their chairs turned backwards and spin around when they hear a voice they like,” she added.

She later chose Adam Levine to be her mentor and finished that season in third place.

Yahr added that it was a mutual admiration society since Adam Levine couldn’t help gushing about Christina Gimmie’s talent, and vice versa.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]

TAGGED:
Share This Article