With her new song just days away, Ariana Grande is ready for her close-up.
Grande, 30, posted a photo via Instagram on Sunday, January 7, heralding the arrival of her new song “Yes, And?” The artistic pic — credited to Grande’s longtime creative partner, Katia “Kat” Temkin — is a blurry close-up of the “No Tears Left to Cry” singer’s face, with her eyes wide and her lips covered in a vibrant shade of red. In the caption, Grande wrote that her new song would drop this Friday, January 12.
“Queen. We are ready,” wrote Nicki Minaj, who has collaborated with Grande on a handful of songs, most notably 2014’s “Bang Bang.” Dylan Mulvaney said that “2024 is delivering already,” while City Girls’ JT celebrated the arrival of “Ari Season.” Grande’s brother, Frankie Grande, left a string of joyous emojis in the comments, while RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Kerri Colby commented, “The heavens are on their way.” Drag Race judge and The Tonight Show alum Ross Mathews exclaimed, “PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED!!!”
The photo was not just for a new single — it was the cover art of Grande’s next album. In late December 2023, the star of the upcoming Wicked movie teased that the follow-up to 2020’s Positions would drop this year. Grande seemingly confirmed that with a Monday, January 8, post on her Instagram Story. “P.s. I couldn’t wait any longer to tell you that although this is not the album title, [the photo] is indeed the album cover (well…….one of them!)”
Grande’s last solo single was “POV,” released in March 2021. Since then, she’s appeared as a featured artist on a handful of songs, including the remixes of The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears” and “Die for You” and Demi Lovato’s “Met Him Last Night.”
While Grande’s music career has remained fairly dormant for the past few years, her personal life has been in the spotlight in recent months. Last year, she and husband Dalton Gomez split after secretly tying the knot in 2021. Us later confirmed that the couple separated in January 2023 and finalized their divorce in October of that year. Amidst that, Grande sparked a romance with her Wicked costar Ethan Slater (who filed for divorce from his wife, Lilly Jay, in July 2023.)
At the end of 2023, Grande reflected on the “most transformative, most challenging and yet happiest and most special years of my life.” Grande wrote via her Instagram Story that she experienced “so many beautiful yet polarizing feelings” and that she “never felt more pride or joy or love while simultaneously feeling so deeply misunderstood by people who don’t know me.”
Grande ultimately acknowledged that going forth, she’s “listening to and trusting myself, even when fear or trauma tells me not to. I am reacting to things that deserve my energy only and removing and protecting myself from things that do not.”
