Photo: DAMEBK/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
It’s been three long years since Ariana Grande released her sixth studio album, Positions. And okay, fine, she has a good excuse: she’s been focusing on her role as Glinda the Good Witch in the upcoming Wicked movies. But the SAG-AFTRA strike did mean she got a little break from filming. This year, she found time to hop on the remix of her work husband The Weeknd’s “Die For You.” She also dropped a reissue of Yours Truly to celebrate its tenth anniversary. But of course, fans are still hungry for a new release. Are there any signs that Grande and her blonde ponytail have been working on AG7? Thankfully… yuh. Here’s everything we know about her next album so far.
Grande captioned her latest album-related post, “see you next year ♡.” Speaking for millions of Arianators, her brother, Frankie, commented, “It’s official. 2024 is my favorite year of all time.”
Grande’s December 27 Instagram post includes a photo of her tearing up in the studio, plus a video of her crying on a couch because AG7 was almost finished.
When Grande posted pictures of herself in the studio earlier in December, Billie Eilish spoke for all of us when she commented, “UN MUTE PLS.” But Grande has since confirmed via an Instagram comment that we shouldn’t expect any audio previews of her next era. “no snippets this time 🙂 i love you,” she wrote.
Grande has posted a muted video of her mother, Joan, dancing, presumably to a bop from the album. Cynthia Erivo, Grande’s Wicked co-star, has also teased in an Instagram comment that “no one is ready,” adding, “I’m so freaking proud of you!! This project is so freaking special!!!❤️” Zach Sang said on his show that he was “maybe listening to a bunch of music” while hanging out in a studio with Grande. The rest of us will just have to be satisfied with the sound of the “st-” in one of the otherwise-muted studio videos she’s posted so far.
On December 7, Grande shared Instagram photos of herself in the studio with producer and composer Max Martin, one of her frequent collaborators. (He’s credited on “Problem,” “Side to Side,” “Greedy,” “Dangerous Woman,” “God Is a Woman,” “No Tears Left to Cry,” and more.) The reveal that they’re working together again didn’t necessarily come as a surprise, though — back in October, Grande posted a photo dump that included a balcony snapshot with Martin. Fans somehow recognized that the background was similar to the view from the rooftop of Jungle City Studios, a recording studio in New York. Shortly afterward, “Page Six” reported that Grande was indeed working with Martin on her next album.
Grande later posted a photo of another frequent collaborator, Ilya Salmanzadeh, in the studio, seeming to confirm his involvement in the upcoming album. The producer and composer previously worked on tracks including “Santa Tell Me,” “Bloodline,” “Bad Idea,” “Breathin,” and more.
On December 20, photographer Miles Diggs shared photos of Grande in a brown fit on social media. On Instagram, the caption was simple: “🎬🎰 go time @arianagrande.” His caption on Threads was a bit more direct: “Ari on Set in NYC yesterday 🎰🎬🎥.” If it’s not a music video, then it certainly seems to be some sort of visual related to the album, because Diggs also added the hashtag #Ag7.
Grande’s December 27 post also tagged music video director Christian Breslauer, as well as multiple dancers, so…
This will be her seventh studio album, after all. Her December 7 post had… you guessed it, seven pictures and videos from the studio. Her next posts related to the album were shared on December 17 and December 27. We’ll set our clocks for January 7…