- Ariana Grande confirmed she’s on the cusp of releasing new music.
- She’s been teasing her seventh album with photos and videos on social media.
- Grande has also been busy filming “Wicked.” She hasn’t released an album since 2020’s “Positions.”
Ariana Grande fans are gearing up to hear new music for the first time in over three years.
The “7 Rings” singer has been teasing her seventh album, affectionately nicknamed “AG7,” with photos and videos on social media.
On Monday, Grande shared a link to sign up for email updates from Universal Music Group. (Grande is signed to Republic Records, a division of UMG.)
Here’s everything we know about the upcoming release.
Grande began teasing ‘AG7’ in October
Grande has remained largely mum about new music since the abrupt release of her sixth album, “Positions,” on October 30, 2020. (She also declined to tour the album.)
The following year, Grande was cast as Glinda the Good Witch in the movie adaptation of “Wicked,” which began filming in December 2022.
Since then, Grande has mostly stuck to sharing updates about the movie and her makeup brand, R.E.M. Beauty — until October 23, 2023, when she acknowledged the fan-bestowed title for her next album with a cheeky post on Instagram.
Grande shared a slideshow with multiple photos and videos on a farm, writing in the caption, “ag7: goat mother.”
The slideshow also included a photo of Max Martin, the legendary Swedish producer who’s worked on some of Grande’s most beloved songs, including “Problem,” “Into You,” and “Everytime.”
@arianagrande/Instagram
Grande officially began teasing new music in December. She shared multiple photos from the studio and a muted video of herself in a recording booth. She also shared belated updates from the recording process on her Instagram story, dated September 30, October 26, and November 22.
Grande’s posts received several comments from fellow musicians, including SZA (“Oh this bout to eat”), Billie Eilish (“UN MUTE PLS”), and Selena Gomez (“FINALLY”).
She also received comments from trusted collaborators, including Victoria Monét (“She’s HOME!!!”), Tayla Parx (“Exactlyyyy!”), and Savan Kotecha (a red-heart emoji), possibly hinting at the team she assembled to create her seventh album.
All three have worked with the Grammy winner throughout her career: Monét has been involved since Grande’s Nickelodeon days; Parx played a huge role in writing “Positions,” as well as “Thank U, Next,” Grande’s fifth and most celebrated album; Kotecha is known for producing songs across her discography, including “Break Free,” “Side to Side,” “God Is a Woman,” and “Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored.”
The album will likely address Grande’s ‘transformative’ year
In a 2020 interview with Business Insider, Parx said that Grande’s album process always starts with a deep dive into her emotional state.
“She started off with what she wanted to talk about — which, for her, is always something that comes from a really genuine place and where she is in life at that moment,” she revealed, referring to the creation of “Positions.”
Indeed, in 2018, Grande set a new standard for honest songwriting; on her fourth album, “Sweetener,” she named a love song after Pete Davidson, her fiancé at the time. When they broke up, she released her No. 1 single “Thank U, Next,” which name-dropped Davidson and three other ex-boyfriends.
While its references were less explicit, “Positions” was similarly sprinkled with details about Grande’s real life and her then-partner, Dalton Gomez.
In the years since, Grande’s dating habits have continued to make headlines. She announced her engagement to Gomez two months after “Positions” came out and got married the following year. However, the couple split in 2023. Before their divorce was finalized, Grande began dating her “Wicked” costar, Ethan Slater, who was also married until recently.
In an open letter to fans, shared on her Instagram story in December, Grande reflected on 2023 as “one of the most transformative, most challenging, and yet happiest and most special years of my life.”
@arianagrande/Instagram
“i have never felt more pride or joy or love while simultaneously feeling so deeply misunderstood by people who don’t know me, who piece whispers together and make what they want out of me and their assumptions of my life,” she wrote.
Grande expressed a similar sentiment while reflecting on the “Thank U, Next” era, including the personal ruptures and epiphanies that fed its creation. “People don’t see any of the real stuff that happens, so they are loud about what they think happened,” she told Vogue in 2019. “They didn’t see the years of work and fighting and trying, or the love and exhaustion.”
Considering Grande’s track record as an artist, it seems safe to assume that her “beautiful and yet polarized feelings” from the past year will inform her new music.
Grande seemed to confirm new music will arrive in 2024
In late December, select fans received a postcard from Grande, which showed a close-up shot of red lips. The package also contained red lipstick from R.E.M. Beauty and a note written in red ink: “See you next year.”
Shortly after, Grande shared another slideshow on Instagram with the same caption.
The post featured a photo of Ilya Salmanzadeh, another producer Grande has repeatedly worked with, and a photo of herself crying in the studio.
At the end of the slideshow, Grande included a video of herself curled up on the sofa. The cameraman asks her, “What’s going on in your life right now? Are you tired? Have you been working hard? Is this the — almost — the last day of this album?”
“I’m so tired,” Grande replies through fits of giggles. “But so happy and grateful.”
Fans have already begun speculating about song titles
On Thursday, Grande was photographed by Miles Diggs, a photographer often hired by celebrities. He shared the images on Instagram with the caption, “with your chest.”
In the photos, Grande is wearing a black crewneck embroidered with the phrase, “yes, and?”
As many fans quickly noted, Grande has used this strategy to tease song titles before. Ahead of the release of “Sweetener,” Grande shared a photo of herself wearing a crewneck with the title of its lead single, “No Tears Left to Cry.”
This has led fans to speculate about a track titled “Yes, And?” on the new album. Diggs liked several tweets about this theory. Grande’s mother, Joan Grande, also liked a tweet that reads, “‘yes, and?’ is the new ‘thank u, next.'”
Business Insider will update this post as more information becomes available.
