Ariana Grande Returns, Older and Wiser, With the Sparkling, Sarcastically Titled ‘Eternal Sunshine’: Album Review
variety.comJem Aswad Executive Editor, Music It’s been a very quiet three-and-a-half years for Ariana Grande — quiet for one of music’s biggest stars, anyway — and a bit of an adjustment for fans.
She’d been almost ubiquitous, catapulting into her musical career at a superhuman velocity in 2013 and releasing six albums in just over seven years — a fierce clip for anyone whose name doesn’t include the words Swift or Prince — while touring constantly, launching multimillion-dollar brands, racking up 14 songs with a billion-plus streams on Spotify alone, and establishing herself as one of the most formidable presences on social media.
She was 27 when her last album, “Positions,” dropped, but it was an old 27 — all of that success came with more than a little drama and trauma, so it’s not surprising that a breather was in order.
Since then, she’s made just a handful of guest appearances on other artists’ songs (although her two duets with the Weeknd were both global smashes) and, with her starring role in Universal’s big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical “Wicked” due later this year, she’s also wisely shunning the spotlight to avoid oversaturation before that film’s inevitable promotional juggernaut.
Read more on variety.com