Ariana Grande Taking Break After Tour Amid Public Scrutiny Over Health

Additionally, Grande “will no longer be appearing” in the West End revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George next summer, in which she would have reunited with her Wicked costar Jonathan Bailey, the source confirmed. 

While Grande won’t be starring in the musical, the insider added that she “cannot wait to support the brilliant team bringing this project to life.”

Two days before news broke of the 33-year-old’s upcoming break from the spotlight, she released her eighth studio album, petal, along with the music video for her single of the same name.

While Grande’s appearance in the music video further fueled ongoing concerns about her well-being, a source close to the “yes, and” singer stated that her album “is a fight song, an anthem about the love-hate relationship with the public and their toxicity.”

Indeed, Grande has addressed body-shamers in the past.

“I’ve been doing this in front of the public, and kind of been a specimen in a petri-dish since I was 16 or 17,”  she shared during a December 2024 interview with the web series Oui Oui Baguette. “So I have heard it all. I’ve heard every version of it, of what’s wrong with me. And then you fix it, and then it’s wrong for different reasons.”

“It’s hard to protect yourself from that noise,” she continued at the time, “and I think it’s something that is uncomfortable no matter what scale you’re experiencing it on.”

While Grande’s new music centers on her relationship with the public, petal is not about her love life, the insider told E! News, saying, “This album is not about any romantic partner or breakup in that way.”

Yet, Grande—who recently rekindled her romance with Ricky Alvarez following her breakup with Ethan Slater earlier this year—emphasized that she channeled another side of herself while writing the album.

“It pulls from many different parts of myself and yet, at the same time, it is very experimental and different for me,” she said in an Apple Music clip posted on July 29. “I wrote from a place that I don’t usually, which was like an unfiltered rage that I think we all feel sometimes.”

For a closer look at how Grande has evolved throughout her career, read on…