Products You May Like
Ariana Grande gave her first extended interview to Zach Sang ahead of the release of Eternal Sunshine in 10 days—and she got candid about her feelings on tabloid coverage of her. This is Grande’s first album following her divorce from Dalton Gomez and the beginning of her new relationship with Wicked co-star Ethan Slater.
Her album will cover her feelings during the breakup, a songwriting process she handled with a lot of care and consideration to her ex, she revealed. Grande told Sang, “The loss and grief that you hear some of the album, some of the heartbreak stuff, there was so much love and transparency. That was something I really wanted to make sure was captured, wasn’t like a ‘fuck you’ at all and ever. Even track number 2 [“bye”], I tried to make sure it was kind and giving credit for trying and for the goodness that there was. So, that was a tricky balance for me because I definitely had some sessions where I was writing more emotionally and reactively but that’s also very human so I didn’t want to erase all of it.”
She also candidly addressed tabloid coverage of her, and strangers thinking they know her based on those stories. They can create a false sense of knowing someone, she and Sang agreed. “We selectively remember that this is what the tabloids do to people, especially women, based on whether or not we like the person,” she continued. “We selectively remember that. We selectively leave space for humanness, for nuance, they don’t leave space for that—well, they do for their friends and family. It’s selective. They turn it off when that aligns with the version of a person that they have in their head that they want to believe is true. But I don’t say this for them. I say it for my fans and myself.”
Grande noted that of course she has plenty to say regarding rumors about her. “I feel like we don’t need to go into any specifics but of course there’s, like, an insatiable frustration, inexplicable hellish feeling with watching people misunderstand the people you love and you,” she said.
She sees Eternal Sunshine as a project that will make a statement for her on what she has actually gone through. “Oh god, I hope so [this album quiets all the rumors],” she said. “I think it does. I think it’s the absolute worst idea. I’m so nervous because pieces of it touch on things that are real and then pieces of it are also just like, yeah, part of the concept. So what is that separation, and it’s so scary to leave it up to these selective memory people to decipher. It’s scary, but I digress. Too late, the vinyls have been printed.”
Watch Grande’s full The Zach Sang Show interview below, which first aired on the Amazon Music channel on Twitch:
You can preorder Eternal Sunshine here:
