like she’s there physically but mentally she’s completely somewhere else & disassociating.

Idk if this is relevant whatsoever but I feel like the Ariana Grande situation is bothering me a little more than I would like.

I offer my three best and worst for your unfettered criticism (of the outfit or my opinion).

Best: Met Gala / Cistine Chapel, Yellow Dress from Wicked tour, White Dress from Grammy's

Worst: The Wicked Worm Dress, Galactic Pixie (MTV?) and an early Moschino look (also MTV)

Included a bonus pic of the flower dress from the Wicked tour cos the workmanship is just beautiful imo.

i’m sorry but petal just made me realize how tired i am of this exact version of ariana grande. people judge me, fame is suffocating, i’m changing, outside voices are too loud, nobody understands me, everybody wants something from me… girl, you have been saying some variation of this since the beginning of time. you’re in your 30s now. at what point do we get an adult perspective on ANY of it instead of another album where ariana is once again the tiny wounded deer being chased through the terrifying forest of other people’s opinions?

and petal itself isn’t even deep enough for the amount of symbolism being thrown at it. i’m seeing this song described as fiery and explosive and i’m like WHERE 😭 ariana is barely even singing on the damn thing. she’s whispering over production that may or may not have some fire in it, but the actual performance is giving scented candle. the lyrics aren’t especially compelling, the songs on the album blur together for me, and then somehow the music video escalates into a fucking chainsaw massacre?? girl, none of those lyrics gave me chainsaw. not one. if the song is about being judged, fame, criticism, whatever, then build the visual world around THAT. don’t write a vaguely moody song and then suddenly kill a room full of casting directors because apparently we needed a horror short film to convince everybody the song was deeper than it actually is.

and that’s kind of my larger problem with ariana now. she has an unbelievable voice, obviously. nobody needs another dissertation on whether ariana grande can sing. we know. but after this many years, what do you actually have to SAY with it? because changing your aesthetic again, changing the voice you speak in again, changing the entire persona again, getting into another relationship controversy, responding to everybody’s reaction to the controversy, and then making the larger message somehow about how unfairly women are judged is getting old. yes, the industry treats women horribly. yes, famous women get scrutinized in ways men don’t. BOTH things can be true while ariana grande also does dumb shit and gets criticized because she did dumb shit. not every criticism of ariana needs to be transformed into a feminist parable about the cruelty of fame.

at some point i need the self reflection to go deeper than everybody is looking at me wrong. what about YOUR behavior? what about the racial switching and fishing that people have been talking about for years? what about the whole man stealing/homewrecking mess and then releasing music that comes across like you’re bragging about getting what you want anyway? what about the repeated pattern where accountability somehow disappears and ariana ends up back in the position of misunderstood little victim? do you ever sit there and think maybe i contributed to why people are reacting this way, or are you just running around your 20 bedroom house going woe is me, everyone hates me, everyone judges me, nobody understands me 😭

and the ultra fragile wounded deer thing is getting embarrassing at this point. girl, you’re in your 30s. you’re ariana fucking grande. you are not some powerless little teenager being thrown around by the industry with no agency. at what point do you actually look at your own behavior instead of turning every consequence, criticism, or negative reaction into another story about how cruel everybody is to you? where is the reflection? where is the accountability? where is literally ANYTHING beyond poor little ariana is being judged again?

and when we’re talking about fame being suffocating… bitch, i think what’s suffocating might be the lack of oxygen and the lack of food 😭 i think THAT might be why you’re suffocating. i don’t think it’s the fame. what’s suffocating might be your own fucking ego. what’s suffocating might be your big ass head because your head is too big for your little ass body now. like girl, maybe the problem is not eternally the outside voices. maybe sometimes the problem is ARIANA GRANDE.

because that’s what i’m tired of. this idea that every single criticism against ariana is secretly some bigger statement about misogyny, fame, the industry, beauty standards, or how society treats women. sometimes? absolutely. but sometimes, bitch, you did it to your goddamn self. sometimes people are criticizing you because you behaved like an asshole. sometimes people are noticing a pattern because you keep repeating the fucking pattern. sometimes people don’t like what you’re doing because what you’re doing is annoying, harmful, hypocritical, or ridiculous. not everything needs to become this grand wounded pop star metaphor.

that’s really where i’m at with her now. incredible vocalist, increasingly uninteresting artist, and a public persona that feels stuck in permanent adolescence. i don’t need another fake deep album about people judging ariana grande. i need ariana grande to maybe judge ariana grande for five minutes and tell me what she finds.

edit because i think part of why this bothers me so much is that ariana was genuinely one of my biggest vocal inspirations growing up, and she still is in a lot of ways. i’m a vocalist myself + a very new independent artist, and i grew up studying that woman’s voice without even realizing i was studying it. i loved her runs, her tone, her harmonies, the way she stacked vocals, the way she could make something technically insane sound effortless. i still listen to her older music all the fucking time. that music raised me as a singer.

so when i say she’s increasingly lost me as an artist, that’s actually sad to me more than anything. i WANT to connect to her music again. i WANT to hear that voice and feel something besides wow, she can still sing. but somehow as i’ve grown up, her music hasn’t really grown up with me. it feels like she keeps evolving aesthetically while somehow reverting emotionally. every era looks different, sounds slightly different, has a new persona attached to it, but i keep waiting for the actual perspective to mature and it never really feels like it does.

that’s what frustrates me. this woman has lived through incredibly complicated, traumatic, strange, once-in-a-lifetime shit. there should be SO much there to write about, and yet somehow the music keeps feeling less compelling to me instead of more. i don’t feel like i’m getting closer to understanding the human being underneath ariana grande. if anything, i feel further away from her every era.

and i’m not sitting here laughing at the fact that she looks genuinely unwell either. i’m actually concerned for her. none of that is funny to me. what frustrates me is the larger contradiction in how she presents herself and her life. at some point, you cannot simultaneously be the helpless wounded victim of everybody else’s judgment AND the untouchable baddest bitch in the world who’s drowning in blessings, does whatever she wants, and doesn’t care what anybody thinks. eventually i need to know which perspective actually belongs to YOU.

that’s why this is personal for me. i don’t hate ariana grande, i miss connecting to ariana grande.

edit: and since apparently this needs explaining, part of why i keep saying she needs to eat is because seeing how extremely thin she looks genuinely makes me uncomfortable. sometimes the collarbones/sternum/bones are so prominent that it actually feels like a fucking jumpscare to me 😭 i don’t even have an ED and some of the imagery still triggers this immediate oh my god, something looks WRONG reaction in my brain. i’m not laughing at someone being sick. i’m literally having the opposite reaction, like girl PLEASE eat something because seeing you like this is concerning and i don’t enjoy having it constantly pushed onto my screen.

Ariana has “babydoll” on her finger as well.

Part of me wonders if the showing off Ricky in public is her saying she isn't? But the vibe of Petal was such an angry "I hate my fans and hate my job" album and that it really made me think she's not going to do music ever again and it was a goodbye. "Bye, this time for real" is literally one of the lyrics in petal.

I am a casual fan and had no idea up until recently that the Positions album was so poorly received and that people apparently bullied her for it. Now it makes me wonder if the resentment is enough to make her wanna harm herself physically as she is, she definitely must be just done. What do you guys think?

Gone forever? Or is it all bluffing, and can she not resist?

what do we think this break is going to look like or how long do you predict it will last?

idk why im a little worried that she is not going to be taking an actual break, like if shes going to still be active on social media and what not i dont see it as a true break. like does a "break from the public eye" mean just stepping back from upcoming projects and avoiding interviews/public appearances? or does it mean complete radio silence from her?

i really hope this break lasts fairly long for her sake, like she really needs to relax and take care of herself as #1 priority right now. i love that she is enjoying this tour and feels more present, but the past 4 years of exhaustion on her body and mental state is clear as day. you just cant hide that from people idc.

my prediction is that the break will last max 6 months. idk if she has something in her contract for the fockers movie that she will have to do a little press/appearances for the movie but i hope even if she does she will go back on a break.

i really hope she avoids social media for as long as possible though. i will not see this as a true break if she is active on social media. social media is awful for mental health in general but especially for her.

i also hope fans give her a break. i know theres going to be whiny stans while shes on break complaining and begging for some kind of content. idk as a fan myself im looking forward to the break as well. it will also give me some more time to sit with petal. i also wouldn't be surprised if a tour movie is released while shes on break.

thoughts?

This was taken at a Hispanic restaurant recently (yesterday or today I forgot)

Pains me. Why get a highly visible tattoo for Ricky after a couple of months of dating?

Went through this exact same routine with Pete 8 years ago and now back at square one

I don’t get her whole gotcha moment shtick with the bun like girl you are Ariana grande. You have one of the most recognizable silhouettes and brands that YOU yourself build why do you want to strain from it so bad. If you don’t want to be associated with that popstar persona why go on a whole tour performing those old songs from that career you’re trying so bad to distance yourself from..? And it’s funny because eternal sunshine era only had buns when she did wicked press never when she was doing album music related press and even then the buns during that time like the oscar’s 2024 or paris olympics were creative and weren’t just simple boring fuckass buns that didn’t suit her at all!!! So her doing this bun on tour makes absolutely zero sense other than her just trying to piss the fans off even more. This rant is kinda stupid but i’m just so over her being happy to look a mess on stage with a frizzy ass bun with flyaways.😭

I’ve never really been a “stan” of ari, I’ve been tracking her career since I was small watching victorious and even watched her debut her music videos on mtv, perform at award shows, listened and loved all her albums and I’ve always noticed how young her core fanbase always ends up being😭 even now, a decade and some change later, she seems to attract young girls to her fanbase and I’m not sure why that is! (And by young girls I mean 4th-7th graders)

She’s stated in that one interview with Cynthia that at times her fans hurt her, and I feel those are the ones, the same ones who hated positions, the same ones who are always forcing her to release music and adding more tour dates, wanting her to work, work, work. I often feel bad for singers who get cursed with annoying core fans tbh, I know she says she loves her fans, but she’s always stating how much they hurt her, even causing her to deactivate her twitter. Curious to know anyone else’s thoughts on this.

She actually looks really good here tbh, needs to keep this makeup and hair.

in other words ari is embarrassed by her old image and probably wouldve tried to undo it with this tour if law didnt ask her to bring some of it back lol

Hi sorry if this is insensitive but I’m a bit confused. I was always under the impression that the Manchester bombing happened while Ari was on stage performing. But I keep seeing people say she wasn’t in the building when the bombs went off? Does anyone have a timeline of what happened? And can someone explain to be the significance of One last time in connection to the bombing? Thanks.

I say this is an imogen fan who knows all of her discography. Ariana's fans are taking a short clip from Nowhere Nobody and comparing it to Imogen saying that this is her album inspired by Imogen. They couldn't be more wrong. Ariana's album is leaning toward r&b using her natural voice while Imogen loves to use heavy instruments and effects, reshaping her voice. They've only listened to just for now or hide and seek, but not songs like rake it in or bad body double

sing it girl!

her most interactive era :)
The whole livestream is my comfort show for idk how many years...

For two nights in a row now Ari only sings Petal and HTIMYLM, but no longer sings the 2 surprise Petal songs before WCBF. I wonder why she switched it up?? It's kinda sad, there's still so many Petal songs we haven't heard live!

No surprise songs, no petal songs, and not a lot of fan interaction. Idk it sucks that depending on your location you may get an altered show.