It is the start of her last big fanfare before she withdraws from public life indefinitely in September.
And as she walked on stage for the first of a 10-show run at London’s O2 Arena, international pop sensation Ariana Grande sent the crowd wild.
Two weeks ago, the 33-year-old singer shocked fans when she announced on stage at a Chicago concert of her Eternal Sunshine tour that she was stepping back from the spotlight to ‘set boundaries’ and said ‘human beings need a break sometimes’.
Ariana’s schedule has been nonstop for the past five years, with the star filming both parts of Wicked, promoting the films, shooting Focker-in-Law and releasing two albums – Eternal Sunshine and Petal before beginning the tour.
Her shock break has come amid a roiling online outcry over her new music video Petal, in which her figure was strikingly thin.
Despite her frail frame, the former Disney child star looked as calm and confident as ever as she kicked off the show with Yes, And?
It is the start of her last big fanfare before she withdraws from public life indefinitely in September. And Ariana Grande sent the crowd wild as she kicked off her London residency
Two weeks ago, the 33-year-old singer shocked fans when she announced on stage at a Chicago concert of her Eternal Sunshine tour
Surrounded by dancers, the singer stood out in a black lace corset dress and thigh-high custom Christian Louboutin boots and performed a racy number, The Boy Is Mine, with a cat mask on and whip in hand.
The songstress returned in a pink ballerina custom Alexander McQueen outfit.
Ariana’s concert runs for around two hours and is divided into five acts. The stage design is centred around a destroyed house, seen throughout the promotional visuals for Eternal Sunshine, which becomes overgrown with flowers as the concert progresses.
Filming notices at the event entrance stated the show would be professionally filmed, amid rumours of a special concert film being released.
Each ticketholder is allowed to carry just one transparent bag made from clear plastic, vinyl or PVC, with no colour tints, prints, patterns or logos. They were also encouraged to only bring essential items.
There was a high police presence on site and extra security checks, resulting in long queues and wait times to enter the venue.
This is a tragic consequence of her 2017 tour when Manchester Arena was targeted by an Islamist terrorist bomber, killing 22 audience members and leaving Ariana ‘broken’.
Much to the devastation of her adoring fans, these O2 shows will be the last they will see of her publicly in what has been forecast as a year.
So drastic will her pull-back from the spotlight be that Ariana’s team has even cancelled her commitments in November for the Focker-in-Law press tour.
There was a high police presence on site and extra security checks, resulting in long queues and wait times to enter the venue, with concert-goers dressed up in Ariana-themed outfits
Two donned Ariana’s signature bunny ears
Ariana sparked concern with her thin frame in her latest music video (pictured)
Grande is pictured in 2018, which she claims was an ‘unhealthy’ time for her
The star will appear opposite Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro and Owen Wilson in the latest of the Meet the Parents franchise.
Another major work commitment that has been affected by the shock hiatus, was her upcoming role in a Barbican production of Sunday In The Park with George: Stephen Sondheim’s legendary 1984 musical about Georges Seurat and his mistress Dot.
Jonathan Bailey, Ariana’s co-star in the Wicked franchise, will still fulfil his obligations as the 19th-century French painter, but the singer was forced to cancel.
Her casting had been a major coup for producers – and a triumph for the London venue.
Ariana and Jonathan were, of course, two stars of the Wicked films, by far the most successful cinematic adaptations of Broadway musicals ever, grossing more than $750million [£550million] at the box office and garnering ten Oscar nominations [including one for Grande as Best Supporting Actress].
For over a decade Ariana had repeated in interviews that playing the Glinda the ‘good witch’ was her greatest ambition and so when she landed the part in 2021 she waxed lyrical about how it was her ‘dream role’.
But it was a character that took an emotional and physical toll on the then-28-year-old star.
Intensive rehearsal schedules, singing live, and performing stunts alongside British co-star Cynthia Erivo were all-consuming.
It was then that conversations about Ariana’s weight began, as fans shared their concern when she appeared noticeably thinner while promoting the film.
Speculation around Ariana’s altered appearance – some concerned, some prurient and some simply cruel – has dogged her for a long time.
While the Thank U, Next singer has always publicly insisted that she is perfectly healthy and has never directly addressed concerns about her dramatic weight loss.
In April 2023, she addressed the speculation publicly with a post on TikTok, saying: ‘I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies,’ adding it was hard ‘to be paid this close attention to [sic]’.
But the release of the music video for her new single Petal only served to inflate speculation surrounding her appearance.
Ariana surely hoped that it would attract attention for its feminist closing scene, in which she attacks a group of rude and dismissive male music executives with a chainsaw, ending up drenched in blood, like a horror film.
However, although the Petal video swiftly racked up millions of views, the reaction focused almost entirely on her strikingly thin appearance.
The British actress and Left-wing activist Jameela Jamil – who has survived an eating disorder – weighed in online, claiming that Grande was ‘possibly dying in front of us’ and wondering why her team had chosen to release such a ‘damaging image for young fans’.
Jamil later deleted her crass remark but insisted: ‘My point stands. This is deeply irresponsible.’
Finally, as the row approached a crescendo just two days after the videos release, Ariana’s team were forced to issue the bombshell statement.
Her spokesman told People magazine that the singer would ‘be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour’, adding: ‘She looks forward to … taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny.’
In January this year, Ariana admitted a career break ‘would be healthy’, telling Vogue Japan: ‘These past few years have been pretty non-stop. And by few, I mean 15.’ She added that she was searching for more ‘balance’ in the years to come.
Trouble began for Ariana in 2017 when there was the horrific suicide bombing of her Manchester Arena concert by the Islamist of Libyan descent, Salman Abedi.
He murdered 22 people, many of them children, and injured more than 1,000 others.
Inevitably, the atrocity deeply affected Ariana, who said she was ‘broken’ and couldn’t find the words to describe how devastated she felt at the time.
A year after the attack, she said: ‘People are permanently affected by this stuff. It changes everything.’ She added that she was coping with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Many lesser artists would have retired then and there – and she hardly needs the money, being worth around £200million – but Ariana bravely organised the benefit concert One Love Manchester to support victims and their families.
Then, in 2018 – just a year after the Manchester attack – her rapper ex-boyfriend Mac Miller, another child star who had burst on to the music scene as a 15-year-old, died from an accidental drug overdose.
He was just 26. Ariana had first met him when she was 19, and the pair were together for almost two years, breaking up some four months before he died.
‘I can’t believe you’re not here any more,’ she wrote online at the time. ‘I don’t know what to do. You were my dearest friend.’ In an interview the following year, she said her grief over his death was ‘pretty all-consuming’.
Shortly afterwards, she embarked on a brief, whirlwind relationship with actor and comedian Pete Davidson – a former boyfriend of Kim Kardashian – with the couple getting matching tattoos. Davidson presented her with a $93,000 engagement ring, and the couple even bought a pet pig together, named Piggie Smalls – before they broke off the engagement after spending just five months together.
Ariana went on to find brief happiness with Dalton Gomez, an estate agent for luxury properties, whom she married in 2021. However, their divorce was finalised three years later.
She also had a near-three-year relationship with actor Ethan Slater while filming Wicked, before they split up this summer. Slater is thought to have left his ex-wife and newborn baby after meeting the star.
She is now thought to be back in a relationship with Ricky Alvarez, whom she previously dated in 2015.
But amid her turbulent love life, her career has only gone from strength to strength.
Her sellout Eternal Sunshine Tour – and screaming fans – have been proof of that.
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