TikTok star Dixie D’Amelio struggled to get through her mini-concert on Friday night.
D’Amelio was close friends with fellow social media star Cooper Noriega who died on Thursday and had to fight to gain her composure midway through the short set.
“A friend of mine lost his life yesterday,” she told the crowd at the Puma store on Fifth Avenue while turning away and wiping away tears, before urging everyone to check up on their friends.
D’Amelio’s management offered to cancel the show, but she insisted on going forward because she didn’t want to disappoint her fans. When D’Amelio fought to hold back tears the crowd shouted out their support.
D’Amelio, 20, rose to prominence after her younger sister, Charli D’Amelio, became a star on TikTok, amassing over 50 million followers. Last year she released her first single, “Be Happy” and has a debut CD out called “a letter to me.”
Noriega was found dead in a parking lot on Thursday, hours after posting a disturbing video about dying “young af.”
The social media star, who had 1.7 million followers on TikTok, shared a video in bed and wrote, “who else be thinking they gon d!€ young af.”
Noriega had recently opened up about using drugs before he turned 10.
Last week he appeared on Barstool’s “BFFs” podcast and revealed to taking “Xanax, Aderall, mariuana and nicotine” at only nine years old.