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Nelly felt inspired by Ohio kidnap survivor

Written by . Published: July 30 2013

Nelly felt flattered when kidnap victim Amanda Berry chose to attend his Ohio gig at the weekend (27-28Jul13), marking her first public appearance after 10 years in captivity.


Berry was held at a home in Cleveland for a decade, alongside two other women, and she was finally released when a neighbour heard her screams for help in May (13).


The 27 year old celebrated her newfound freedom by attending Nelly's concert at the The Roverfest venue in her hometown on Saturday (27Jul13), and the hip-hop star felt honoured she showed up to see him perform.


He tells the BBC, "First we met her backstage, she was real sweet and everything. I couldn't believe the smile that she was wearing... knowing her story. We just invited her up to hang out on the side of the stage. We didn't do it for all this (publicity), I just wanted to show her that I appreciate her courage and just let her know how inspiring she was. Whatever you thought may be going wrong in your life... one day you may smile again - that was the message I got from her. I just wanted to tell her thank you.


"When you look at someone who was as young as she were (sic), as beautiful as she is, to have a smile on her face after going through 10 years of who can imagine, it takes an amount of courage that I don't think a lot of people understand."


When asked if he dispensed any advice to Berry, Nelly adds, "I'm not going to give her a lecture! Everything was beautiful, everything was about her moment. I was just happy that 10 years later she wanted to come to a Nelly concert."

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