Thank u, onto the next album.
Ariana Grande revealed Tuesday that her eighth studio album, “Petal,” will be released July 31. Grande announced the album on Instagram, after teasing the release with photos and videos of her in the studio throughout the spring. The post included the album’s cover, a simple black-and-white photo of Grande smiling with strands of hair covering her face.
In an Instagram video from mid-April, Grande described the album as “something that is full of life and growing through the cracks of something cold and hard and challenging.”
The album is executive produced and written by Grande and Ilya Salmanzadeh, an Iranian Swedish producer who worked on Grande’s albums “Sweetener,” “Thank U, Next” and “Eternal Sunshine.”
Grande’s previous studio album, “Eternal Sunshine,” was released in March 2024. Grande explained that she had to take a break from music while working on “Wicked” and “Wicked: For Good” because of the physical toll shooting the films took on her.
“Every single day was a big day,” Grande told Variety in January. “A lot of days, we were shooting two movies in one.”
However, Grande also tried to quell Arianators’ fears in July, writing on Instagram that it would be “very silly” to assume that just because she had her “hands full with many things” that she would “abandon singing & music.”
“It may not look exactly like it did before but I much prefer how it looks in my head. I am having fun. I feel grateful and excited and inspired,” Grande wrote. “[I’m] finding a balance, between many projects and endeavors I love, and doing it my own way.”
Grande earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Glinda in “Wicked,” as well as Actor Awards nominations for the film and its sequel. Grande won a Grammy earlier this year for pop duo/group performance for “Defying Gravity” with co-star Cynthia Erivo.
“Petal” will be released during Grande’s Eternal Sunshine tour, which kicks off in June. The tour, which hits only 10 cities, launches June 6 at the Oakland Arena and comes to Los Angeles later that month for two nights at Crypto.com Arena and another two at Kia Forum.
In November, Grande said her upcoming tour was “one last hurrah” before stepping back from touring indefinitely.
“I’m very excited to do this small tour, but I think it might not happen again for a long, long, long, long time,” she said on the “Good Hang With Amy Poehler” podcast. “So I’m going to give it my all and it’s going to be beautiful and I think that’s why I’m doing it, because it’s like, one last hurrah.”
Adding onto Grande’s busy year, her new film, “Focker-in-Law,” will hit theaters in November. The movie is the fourth installment in the “Meet the Parents” franchise starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller. Grande plays Olivia Jones, an FBI hostage negotiator who is dating a member of the Focker family. During an interview with “Today” last year, Grande called the experience on set “truly spectacular.”
“Every single person in the cast, I have grown up worshipping,” Grande said. “So to be able to work with them, and share a creative space with them, was a dream come true.”
The post Ariana Grande announces highly anticipated new album, ‘Petal’ appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
