After a four-year hiatus from music marked by persistent speculation surrounding her personal life, the stage was perfectly set for Ariana Grande to make an epic comeback earlier this year. She did just that by releasing “Yes, And?” in January, with the song debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
And now, the 30-year-old star is giving fans a peek into all of the planning that made her comeback possible. In a newly shared behind-the-scenes video, which was filmed prior to the release of “Yes, And?,” Grande meets with her team and explains to them why she believes the house-inspired dance track should be the lead single off her upcoming album Eternal Sunshine, which, at that point, hadn’t been announced yet.
“The reason why I liked it, it’s an all-encompassing, like, ‘What the f–k?’” the pop star says in the clip, which she shared to Instagram Reels. “Why aren’t we all thinking with the cap of, ‘Everyone’s tired, everyone is healing from someone or something you can’t see on the surface.’ That’s why I kind of liked [‘Yes, And?’] as a, ‘We’re coming back.’”
Then, before playing the track for her team, Grande sets the scene. “Pretend you don’t know the rest,” she said, laughing. “Pretend it’s been three years since Positions. Pretend this is, you’ve been seeing me in a f–king blonde wig on the Daily Mail for the past year.”
For context, the “POV” singer spent much of 2023 playing Glinda in Jon M. Chu’s upcoming live-action Wicked movies, a character for which she went blonde. While she was shooting the films over the summer, her personal life became fodder for celebrity gossip, with fans and tabloids alike meticulously dissecting the timeline of her divorce from Dalton Gomez and the beginning of her rumored relationship with Ethan Slater, one of her Wicked castmates.
Things reached a fever pitch when Slater’s estranged wife, Lilly Jay, told Page Six that their marriage had ended because of Grande. “[Ariana’s] the story, really. Not a girl’s girl,” she said in July. “My family is just collateral damage.”
Both TMZ and People, however, reported that Slater and the Victorious alum started dating after both of their previous relationships had ended.
Months later, Grande seemed to address the controversy with “Yes, And?” “Your business is yours and mine is mine,” she sings during the bridge. “Why do you care so much whose d— I ride?”
The “7 Rings” artist’s new video comes on the heels of her new “Yes, And?” remix, which co-stars Mariah Carey. Eternal Sunshine is set to arrive March 8.
Watch Grande meet with her team about “Yes, And?” below.
