Ariana Grande didn’t think she would make another album after 2020’s Positions.
Ariana Grande came close to quitting music before filming 2024’s Wicked.
The 32-year-old pop star has confessed that she had no desire to make a follow-up to 2020’s Positions until playing the role of Glinda in the blockbuster adaptation of the hit musical reignited her “spark” for making music.
Appearing on Shut Up Evan with Evan Ross Katz, she said: “[Playing Glinda] has done so much for Ariana. It has totally rearranged everything about my relationship to creating, you know. I didn’t think I was going to make an album ever again when I left for London.
“That was kind of my secret, but I didn’t think I was going to, you know.”
The Thank U, Next hitmaker says Glinda’s strong “self-belief” inspired her return to music.
She continued: “So I learned a lot from her as a character who learns so much over the course of these two films and has to look at herself in the mirror constantly and sort of peel away at the pieces of her that don’t feel aligned. So I do think that I was kind of forced to do that alongside her.”
Ariana went on to release the album Eternal Sunshine in 2024.
She went on: “I felt like just a genuine spark, like a reconnection and inspiration and something, I mean, maybe I missed it.
“Maybe it’s as simple as I missed it. But I do feel like you have to miss things in order to learn to become better for them. I think I learned so much, and then also I genuinely wanted to do it. I just felt like I couldn’t not. It was an inspired moment and I had to write an album and I had to do it.”
Ariana also wasn’t planning a tour, but she would have been “sad” if she didn’t get to sing the album live.
She said: “Something inside is saying I have to do it.
“And I’m grateful for that because I don’t think I would have said that about a tour forever ago. But you know, I’m just being open and honest about how I feel about these things in real time and following the impulses creatively. You know, they just shout, and then there we are.”
However, Ariana – who will embark on The Eternal Sunshine Tour in 2026, her first since 2019’s Sweetener World Tour – admits it could be a while before she tours again.
She said: “I think putting out the deluxe informed me that I had to do it because I really felt like I’m going to be really sad if I don’t sing this album live. I love this album, and I need to sing it. And I think that would be a really special experience for me and my fans and also how beautiful to re-imagine my relationship to touring in this baby step way. And not that – I mean, this probably won’t happen for a long time again after this one.
“But still, it’ll heal something, and it’ll be really beautiful the same way that this album has. I think it’ll be a nice next step, and I think it’ll be so fun to see the fans. So that’s how it happened and why it happened.”
Ariana Grande came close to quitting music before Wicked
