Ariana Grande is officially making her grand return in 2024. After taking a few years away from making music to focus on her role in the upcoming Wicked live adaptations and her R.E.M. Beauty business, the 30-year-old pop star has confirmed that she’ll finally release her seventh album next year.
On Wednesday (Dec. 27), Grande shared a carousel of photos and videos on Instagram giving fans a peek at her recent time in the studio with producer Ilya Salmanzadeh. In one selfie, she flashes a thumbs-up at the camera while tears visibly run down her cheeks; in another photo, she appears to dance while FaceTiming a friend with her arm in the air.
“The two moods of the album,” she joked of the pictures, sharing them both individually on her Story.
The “POV” singer also included a video taken by a collaborator, who notes from behind the camera that it’s “almost the last day of this album.” “I’m so tired,” she responds in the clip, wrapped in a blanket while laying on a couch. “But so happy and grateful. I also feel like I weigh 3,000 tons.”
“see you next year,” Grande captioned the post.
The Grammy winner hasn’t dropped an album since 2020’s Positions, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 and spawned a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single with its title track. Grande has been teasing her next project on Instagram since earlier this month, making posts alluding to her seventh album on both Dec. 7 and Dec. 17 prior to her latest one on Dec. 27 — notice a pattern?
The singer-mogul also seemed to celebrate the launch of her new era by sending out gifts to a handful of fans, including an R.E.M. lip product, a blurry photo of her own red lips and a handwritten note that promises, “See you next year.” Grande added a photo of the fan package to her own feed, as well as shared posts from the Arianators who received the gifts on her Story.
See Grande’s new post below.