Why have some fans turned on Ariana Grande ahead of her new album?

After two long months having the chorus of Yes, And stuck in our collective brains, Ariana Grande's seventh studio album Eternal Sunshine comes out today.

Marketing it as a concept album, Grande describes Eternal Sunshine in an Instagram post as consisting of "different heightened pieces of the same story, of the same experience." The title of this album is taken from the 2004 movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Grande's new era of music doesn't come without scrutiny, however. Late last year she entered into a relationship with actor Ethan Slater, who played Spongebob Squarepants on Broadway. Both Grande and Slater had been in marriages with other people, which enraged a number of her fans.

Earlier this year, Grande dropped the first single from Eternal Sunshine, Yes, And, and it received a fair bit of backlash because of the nonchalance of her lyrics. Fans didn't like that she was being so flippant about possibly breaking up Slater's marriage. 

To unpack why some fans are upset at Grande and talk more about her new album, music journalist Maura Johnston and culture writers Niko Stratis and Anne T. Donahue join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud on Commotion.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, plus a BONUS episode on the dog actor who won a Palm Dog award at Cannes for his character Snoop in Anatomy of a Fall, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast on your favourite podcast player.

LISTEN | Today's episode on YouTube:

Elamin: Anne, I'm gonna start with you because you are the resident Arianator among us. So let's talk. Let's talk about your first impressions of this record. It just came out.  

Anne: It is heavenly. Dare I say it is bop after bop. It is a showcase of her splendid voice. She's very vulnerable in this album and I think it can get confusing with all of the loud noise surrounding her public persona. But damn, this is good. It is a good sick beat. 

Elamin: Niko, you are less enthusiastic about Ariana Grande in general. This record is being billed as a concept album. Did this album make you change your view of Ariana Grande? 

Niko: My view of Ariana Grande aside, I feel like there are two wolves inside of me. One likes Ariana Grande and one is eternally at odds with her public persona and her, let's say, interesting fanbase. 

Listening to this it's interesting because she wanted people to listen to this record as a whole. We got that one single in January and then the rest of it was like, "You need to wait and hear the whole thing as a singular product." And I think that was a really good call. Listening to the album from start to finish, I was really taken by it. I was really like, "I'm glad that this is a cohesive project." Like Anne said, it moves through waves. Every moment you're like, "I'm enjoying myself, but for a different reason."

It's like moving through a house party and every room is fun, which never happens in life. But in this record, it exists and it's true. And you want to be in all of these rooms simultaneously. Even the ones that are kind of sad.

Elamin: Maura, the reason I like this record is because I think Ariana's generally been someone who's pretty self-aware when it comes to her public persona and likes to interact with it a lot. This is the first time I felt her say, "what is a space that is mine? What is a space that belongs to me and doesn't actually belong to this faceless throng of fans who are out there?"

Eternal Sunshine is not a defensive record, but it is a record that she is using to try and shield herself from saying, like, "who am I as an artist?" versus "what is happening out there?" So, when you listen to this record, what's at stake for Ariana here?  

Maura: I think what you spoke to is part of the reason why Yes, And? was the single. Because listening to the rest of the record, that's clearly the song that's going to get the lightning rod treatment where she's very directly dealing with all sorts of public blowback to her. 

But as far as this record as a whole, I mean, it's been three and a half years since her last full-length album Positions came out. And a lot has happened in pop since then, Olivia Rodrigo had her whole rise. Taylor Swift put out six albums. So there's been a lot of movement in the pop world since Ariana was last around. And so this is her way of re-establishing herself as a force within it. 

Elamin: Anne, Yes, And came out in January. First of all, it debuted at number one and it got a lot of positive reviews from critics. But then some fans turned on her. I mean, there were reports that she lost something like 300,000 fans on Instagram. Can you just tell us a little bit of the reason why some fans might have turned on her for such a confrontational title as "Yes, And?" 

Anne: Ariana is filming for Wicked. And while filming, she meets Ethan Slater, who played Spongebob Squarepants on Broadway. He is allegedly married with a brand new baby. She is married as well. Those marriages end. And then there is a "kind of a debut" for them as a couple. Now, the song deals with the whole, "I don't really care what you think. This is my man." Problem is, it's very controversial. The timeline of the beginning of their relationship is clouded. There's a newborn baby in the mix.

We do not know her. But I think there is a part of the fandom that thought maybe this would be a song explaining her actions, whereas it is her taking accountability. But there's no apology, there's no regret. There's nothing except, "This is what I wanted. So I took it." And that can kind of read as not the greatest message. 

Also on Commotion: Heather O'Neil wins Canada Reads 2024

Novelist Heather O'Neill won Canada Reads 2024 championing The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou. O'Neill is the first person to win Canada Reads as both an author and a contender. 

Read more about her win!

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Stuart Berman