In late 2021, Ariana Grande was the face of Allure Magazine’s new issue to announce her new beauty brand, REM Beauty. While this was exciting news, Ariana would also reveal that she would be taking a break from recording music to explore what she calls “new versions of storytelling”, breaking all our hearts with it.
Ever since then, she’s been purely focused on her brand, making an appearance in the star packed Netflix movie Don’t Look Up in 2021, being a judge on the 21st season of The Voice, and last but not least, announcing that she got cast as the iconic (and personal lifelong dream role of hers) Glinda for the movie adaptation of the hit musical, Wicked!
Since then, fans have been (im)patiently awaiting for Ariana’s big return to the music industry, and after months of rumors that she was producing an album, she returned to Instagram on December 27th and posted pictures of her in the recording studio. On January 7th, the artist finally announced her official comeback single called “yes, and?” to be released 5 days later.
YES, AND?
The official first single takes direct inspiration from Pop/House music such as the iconic song “Vogue” by Madonna. Grande’s main message of the song is not to pay mind to comments from people who are trying to disturb your inner peace. The track is filled with lyrics that represent self love such as “Now I’m so done with caring; What you think, no, I won’t hide” and “And if you find yourself in a dark situation; Just turn on your light and be like; ‘Yes, and?’”
Along with the song, she also released a music video, where she got inspiration from the 80s icon Paula Abdul, filled with amazing choreography and references to her past eras. The hit single debuted at the top of Billboard’s chart.
eternal sunshine
Only 5 days after the release of the single, the singer announced that her seventh studio album would be called Eternal Sunshine, and it would be released March 8th, sending fans into “a spiral of theories”.
The biggest one (that has been confirmed by Ariana herself) is that the album title is inspired directly by the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which stars a couple (played by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet) that after a nasty breakup, decide to erase the memories of their relationship and of each other’s existence in their life in general.
Not only it is one of the vocalist’s all time favorite movies, but she herself has gone through a very public divorce that was filled by speculations from the media, which makes fans believe this album would be her version of coping with her own breakup just the same as the characters in the movie did.
WHAT TO EXPECT?
Ariana has mentioned that this is her first “concept album” and also revealed that while this is her shortest album to date. According to the songwriter, this is her “most complete” one she’s ever made and that she’s “never felt this way about an album before”. She expressed in an interview with Zach Sang that lots of songs have heartbreaking lyrics, but are also “boppy songs”, so prepare your tissues!
The second single of the album will be a song named “We can’t be friends (wait for your love)”, and from a snippet posted by Grande herself, the music video will be directly inspired by the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, where Ariana will play a character called Peaches (a nod to Winslet’s character called Clementine) who will be erasing her memories of a mystery someone, just like the movie characters do.
In other exciting news, Ariana will be the musical guest for the popular TV show Saturday Night Live on March 9th, and she will be performing two songs from her album!
Even though the singer has already confirmed that she does not have plans on touring soon, us fans will be consistently fed this year with new amazing music, flawless music videos, new performances, and also the long awaited Wicked: Part One and the soundtrack (that will feature her in several songs) coming out this year’s Thanksgiving.
The article above was edited by Larissa Buzon.
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