Ariana Grande is well aware of what people have been saying about her in recent history, and she’s taking on all of her critics on new single Yes, And?.
On Friday morning, Ariana unveiled her house-inspired new track, marking her first solo musical release since her 2020 album Positions.
In the years she’s been away, the chart-topping singer has dominated the conversation online over everything from her appearance to speculation about her personal life, particularly relating to her split from ex-husband Dalton Gomez and rumoured new relationship with Wicked co-star Ethan Slater.
And within the lyrics to Yes, And?, she shrugs all of it off.
“I’m so done with caring, what you think,” she sings on the song’s second verse, before adding “No I won’t hide underneath your own projections or change my most authentic life.”
In a spoken-word section, she gets more specific, stating: “Don’t comment on my body, do not reply. Your business is yours and mine is mine. Why do you care so much whose [censored] I ride?”
Alongside her new single, Ari also teased a snippet of the track’s music video, in which critics are heard making digs at her.
“You know I think liked it better when her ponytail was a few centimetres higher,” one remarks, while another adds: “Who cares if she’s happy? I don’t want happy. I want art.”
Most notably another section sees one “critic asking another: “Oh my god did she really do that?”
“Well, I read it on the internet, so it must be true,” they then reply.
Ariana ended 2023 with a message for her fans on Instagram, in which she said the past year had been “one of the most transformative, most challenging, and yet happiest and most special” of her life.
She also added: “I have never felt more pride or joy or love while simultaneously feeling so deeply misunderstood by people who don’t know me, who piece whispers together and make what they want out of me and their assumptions of my life. I have learned how much more important one of those things is than the other.”
The music video for Yes, And? will be released on Friday afternoon at 3pm UK time.