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 asserts Ariana Grande in her new single “Yes, and?” Directed at the incessant curiosities about and intrusions into her personal and professional life, Grande bites back on the “Yes, and?” the first single from her upcoming seventh album.
Written and produced by Grande, Max Martin, and Ilya Salmanzadeh and recorded in New York City, “Yes, and?” confronts the deluge of media attention Grande has been on the receiving end of throughout 2023, from her parting ways with manager Scooter Braun, her divorce from Dalton Gome, and a reported relationship with her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater.
Earlier in 2023, Grande also responded to body-shamming comments about her thin frame. “I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies no matter what,” said Grande in a TikTok video. “There are ways to compliment someone or to ignore something that you see that you don’t like, that I think we should help each other work towards. We should aim toward being safer and keeping each other safer.”
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On December 29, 2023, Grande summed up her year in the public eye, on her Instagram Stories by posting “One of the most transformative, most challenging, and yet happiest and most special years of my life. There were so many beautiful and yet polarized feelings.”
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She added “I’ve never felt more at the mercy of and in acceptance of what life was screaming to teach me. I’ve never felt more fulfilled by or present in my work, being able to cherish every moment. I gave everything I could have possibly given of my heart and of myself to the projects I was fortunate enough to be a part of and learned so much from every brilliant, beautiful soul that I had the privilege of creating art with and crossing paths with this year. I have never felt more pride or joy or love while simultaneously feeling so deeply misunderstood by people who don’t know me.”
Throughout 2023, Grande also had more career highlights, topping the Billboard Hot 100 with her feature in the remix of The Weeknd‘s 2016 single “Die for You” and wrapped up filming for the forthcoming Wicked film, out November 24.
In December, Grande also confirmed the release of her seventh album in 2024, and a follow-up to Positions in 2020, on Instagram, sharing a collage of images in the studio with producer Salmanzadeh and the caption “See you next year.”
With the previous year behind her, “Yes, and?” uncovers a fiercer Grande, brushing off all the cynic, her critics, and a woman less concerned with what anyone has to say: Come on and walk this way through the fire (don’t care what’s on their mind) / And if you find yourself in a dark situation just turn on your light and be like / “Yes, and?” / Say that shit with your chest / And be your own fuckin’ best friend say that shit with your chest.
Photo: KatiaTemkin / Courtesy of Republic Records
