rundown
Ariana Grande revealed on the Shut Up Evan podcast that she was considering giving up her career as a pop star when she left to make Wicked. She talked about how playing Glinda changed her mind and ultimately inspired her to create Eternal Sunshine. He also addressed plans for a tour and why it “probably won’t happen[again]for a long time.”
Ariana Grande had a secret when she arrived in the UK to make Wicked. That meant she was ready to forget her days as a pop star. During an appearance on Evan Ross Katz’s Shut Up Evan podcast, the singer talked about how playing Glinda changed the way she thought about her music career and her decision to do a mini-tour in support of the album Eternal Sunshine, which she recorded while making the film. (She said her next tour “probably won’t happen for a while after this one.”)
Wicked “did so much for Ariana. Wicked completely sorted everything out creatively and in my relationship. When I left for London, I never thought I’d ever make an album again. That was my secret, but it wasn’t meant to be,” Starr said.
But embodying the confident character of Glinda also changed Grande. “Of course, when I go home that day, I can take off my hat and not be in character, but I bring the emotions home and play the role of Glinda, who is confident in herself,” she said. “So even when it’s hard to make a decision, I unpack a lot with my therapist and remember that early in the process because my brain loved it. She had a connection to her gut, and I think I lost that through trauma.”
“It happens because of trauma. It’s okay,” Grande continued. “But our work is like bringing that back together. And through the act of playing it, I think Glinda’s confidence and Glinda’s belief in herself completely ignited something in me that I had missed and really needed.
“So I learned a lot from her as a character who has to constantly look at herself in the mirror and peel back the parts of her that don’t feel like they match. So I think I was kind of forced to do that with her.”
Grande said that touring and making music is “very self-centered. You know, it’s about the artist. And I think that sometimes hurts my soul, especially because of the caricature of me as an artist.” She described her pop star image as a Glinda-like character.
Still, it was a part of her life that she felt she needed to revisit. She recalled the moment during filming when she felt ready to make her own music again. “I felt a sense of reunion and inspiration and the sheer glow of something. I mean, maybe I missed it. Maybe it’s something as simple as I missed it,” she said. “But I feel like you have to let things go in order to learn how to be better for them. And I think I learned so much. And then I really wanted to do it. I felt like I couldn’t not do it. It was an inspirational moment, and I had to write the album. And I had to do it. And they said, ‘Well, there’s a reshoot in January.’ And I said, “Great, that’s fine.” You can either finish it by then or finish it later. ”
That project became “Eternal Sunshine.”
Her decision to tour came from similar sentiments. “Something inside me says I have to do it,” she said. “And I’m grateful for that, because I don’t think I would have said that about a tour a long time ago. But, you know, I’m just being open and honest about how I feel about these things in real time and following my impulses creatively. You know, they’re just screaming, and there we are.”
“I think by putting out Deluxe (the version of Eternal Sunshine), I felt like I would be really sad if I didn’t sing this album live, so I thought I had to do it. I love this album so much that I have to sing it. And I think it’s going to be a really special experience for me and my fans, and I think it’s really beautiful to rethink our relationship with touring in this baby-step way. And it’s not — I mean, this probably won’t happen again after this.
“Still, it’s something healing and it’s going to be something really beautiful, just like this album. I think it’s going to be a great next step and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun to meet the fans. So here’s how it happened and why it happened.”
Watch the full interview below.
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