Ariana Grande’s new single, titled (you guessed it) ‘yes, and?’, seems to be her reply to the questions people online can’t stop asking about her. But rather than offer explanations (or apologies), it serves as a playful and lively dismissal, by way of a dancey, late-’80s house record.
The song, written and produced by Grande with frequent collaborators Max Martin and Ilya Salmanzadeh, is the lead single of her upcoming seventh studio album, which fans have decided is titled Eternal Sunshine, after the Jim Carey and Kate Winslet film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (Grande is a big fan of Carey’s, and the opening of the ‘yes, and?’ music video, also released today, features the coordinates 41.0359° N, 71.9545° W.—Montauk, New York, an important location in the movie.) Besides, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’s premise revolves around erasing the memory of a former lover; fitting, as Grande moves on from her ex-husband, Dalton Gomez, and into a much-discussed new relationship with her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater.
Although Grande had previously announced that she would not be working on any new music until after Wicked was released, in late 2024, the announcement of her seventh album in December came as no surprise to her fan base: Just months after her fourth album, Sweetener, came out in 2018, Grande dropped ‘Thank U, Next,’ the lead single for her fifth. That song—and the album of the same name—arrived in the wake of Grande’s split from Pete Davidson, and the death of her ex Mac Miller the month before. Thank U, Next featured some of Grande’s most vulnerable, mature, and musically ambitious work; it’s no secret that Grande, like one of her idols, Mariah Carey, is powerfully self-aware. “Now I’m so done with caring what you think, no I won’t hide underneath your own projections or change my most authentic life,” she sings in ‘yes, and?’ One can’t help but be excited to hear what else she has to say.
The music video, directed by Christian Breslauer (SZA’s ‘Kill Bill’; ‘Industry Baby’ by Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow) begins with a group of apparently music critics shading Grande: “I miss the old Ari, you know, the singer,” says one. “I hear she’s starting her own line of artisanal hummus next,” quips another. In tone and spirit, it pays homage to Paula Abdul’s iconic visual for ‘Cold Hearted,’ in which she dances for a row of jaded music executives. Grande also dances in her video (surprise!), doing a Fosse-esque routine in an outfit not dissimilar to Abdul’s—kitten heels and all. “My face is sitting, I don’t need no disguise; don’t comment on my body, do not reply; your business is yours and mine is mine; why do you care so much,” she says as she walks through her would-be detractors.
“This is actually her ‘dangerous woman’ era,” a good friend said about ‘yes, and?’. 2016’s Dangerous Woman was Grande’s third studio album, in which she finally shed her Nickelodeon-child-star persona with a latex bunny mask. Yet it’s with ‘yes, and?’ that the 30-year-old Grande is venturing into true femme fatale territory. This is her movie star era, her diva era, her “I don’t give a fuck about what you think” era (unless it can make a good bop and sell some records).
“Protected, sexy, discerning with my time,” sings Grande. This dangerous woman, re-loaded, doesn’t care what you make of her relationships, and does not mind your comments about her makeup line or personal style. There was a rumour that Grande would sample Madonna’s ‘Vogue’ in ‘yes, and?’ She did not, though energetically the song feels akin to Madonna’s M.O.: Here is Grande as a megawatt pop star, fully in her power and offering only a ‘yes, and?’ to any criticism. But how will the public respond to all this? That’s yet to be determined.
While we have no further details on Grande’s new album at the moment, we can only hope that it delivers an abundance of bops befitting her superstardom—and addresses the swirling conversations about her personal life and career with the same humour and subtlety as ‘yes, and?’
This article was first published in Vogue.com.
