If you are an Ariana Grande fan like I am, March 8th was a highly anticipated day. It marked roughly three and a half years since the Queen of Pop released a new album. In the months following the release of her seventh studio album eternal sunshine, Grande was under scrutiny from the public for her new relationship with Ethan Slater. News broke about her relationship with her Wicked co-star shortly after she filed for divorce from her former husband, Dalton Gomez. The fact that Grande rushed into a new relationship shortly after her marriage ended was not what she was under fire for, though, but it was instead because she supposedly “home wrecked” Slater’s family: he was married to his high school sweetheart and had recently welcomed a son. Although the timeline of their relationship was all speculation with very few reliable sources, the media took this story and ran, leaving Grande to be ridiculed.
Rather than letting rumors bring her down, Grande decides to reclaim her narrative through eternal sunshine. She addresses the struggle she has been in through her single “we can’t be friends (wait for your love)”, where she sings “I don’t wanna tiptoe, but I don’t wanna hide / But I don’t wanna feed this monstrous fire”. She continues to find her voice in her upbeat song called “yes, and?” where she proclaims, “No I won’t hide underneath your own projections or change my most authentic life”. Authenticity is at the core of this album, as the giggles that she opens her title track “eternal sunshine” signal her newfound joy. In the same song she adds, “I found a good boy and he’s on my side”.
Grande becomes more confident in revealing what her relationship with Slater is like through tracks like “supernatural”, “ordinary things”, and “imperfect for you”. She looks her haters in the eyes by including a song entitled “the boy is mine”. Grande also puts to bed her “homewrecker” allegations in the song cleverly titled “true story”, where she blatantly calls them “lies” but also shows that she does not care what others think of her in saying, “I’ll play the villain if you need me to”.
Although a lot of the album is upbeat and Grande’s way of telling the world that she is living her best life, that is not to say she hides her struggles as well. She uses other titles on the album to showcase her heartbreak from ending her three-year relationship with Gomez. In arguably the saddest song on the album called “i wish i hated you”, Grande admits how hard it is to move on from that relationship, and she even includes her voice cracking from emotions when singing the chorus.
The dichotomy between her happiness and heartbreak is what makes this album concept unique from anything she has ever created. Her profound lyricism, unmatched vocals, and ability to produce catchy hooks set her apart from all other pop artists. If you have not listened to the album yet, I invite you to listen to her story with open ears.