Ariana Grande Tears Up as She Describes ‘Eternal Sunshine’ as a ‘Really Vulnerable’ Concept Album
Ariana Grande’s album Eternal Sunshine came together rather quickly. Grande shared a video of herself tearing up as she described the project as a “concept album” to her Republic Records team last year.
“Things are just pouring out and happening very quickly as they often do. You know how I am and you know how these things go,” she said in the clip. “We’re gonna do proper vocals and orchestrations in November. I’m nervous! I wanted to share with you that this is kind of a concept album because it’s all different heightened pieces of the same story of the same experience.”
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Grande stopped to tell herself to “fucking get it together, bitch!” before describing how some of the songs on the album are “really vulnerable” while other tracks are her “playing the part that people kind of expect me to be sometimes and having fun with that.”
“As soon as the strike started, I came here and I did a week with Max [Martin] in September. And then I came every day by myself for a while and then we did another week in October,” she said. “This was all pretty fast. I did want to share with you what it is the working title right now. It’s called Eternal Sunshine. I have nine songs I’m gonna play but like 13 songs that are in the world.”
She then said that in her “psychotic, dream world,” she’d want to release the album during the first half of the following year. The album will drop on March 8. The video is laced with overlayed clips of Grande looking through photos and working in the studio on the project.
Eternal Sunshine marks Grande’s first album release since Positions arrived in 2020. Over the last few months, the singer has teased the record with videos and photos of her in the studio with Max Martin. She first worked with the pop juggernaut on her sophomore album, My Everything.
The album, teased as AG7, is a reference to Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet’s film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The “Eloisa to Abelard” passage that Grande shared read: “How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! the world forgetting by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pay’r accepted. and each wish resign’d.”
Grande announced her album Eternal Sunshine last month. The album’s first single, “Yes, And?” took aim at critics and skeptics who observed her from a distance and came to their own conclusions about her artistry and personhood. The record’s lyrics request that people “don’t comment on my body, do not reply” and prompt them to investigate: “Why do you care so much whose d— I ride?”
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