Ariana Grande has a message for the hackers and fans who are leaking her unreleased music.
The pop singer, 30, sat down with the Zach Sang Show for an interview to talk about her upcoming album Eternal Sunshine and her role as Glinda in the upcoming film adaption of the Broadway musical, Wicked.
Grande told Sang she originally did not have plans to record a new album, following 2020’s Positions, until after finishing her commitments for Wicked.
“I didn’t have the goal to make an album… I actually was really opposed to coming out with music until after Wicked, either both parts or just the one part, I wasn’t sure how it would feel,” Grande told Sang.
“But as soon as the [SAG-AFTRA] strike began, I came to New York and just for fun- just to see how it would feel. Max Martin came to New York to spend a week with me at Jungle City Studios here, and it all just kind of started pouring out. After our first week together, I kept coming to the studio every day by myself, and it just kind of kept organically happening that way. So I just decided to react and listen to that and I thought maybe it should come out if it’s coming out of me this way, maybe it should be shared this way.”
One of the songs to come from those sessions includes “Yes, And?,” the first single from Eternal Sunshine.
However, Grande told Sang that she cut a few other songs before flying off to shoot Wicked in England. A song called “Fantasize” among others leaked last year and quickly became fan favorites on TikTok, much to Grande’s displeasure.
“Before I left for Wicked, the few studio sessions that I did, which are all, um- all over TikTok, thank you so much. I’ll see you in jail, literally,” Grande quipped. “The thing is that those were all written for a TV show for … something that was not for me.”
Grande added, “So ‘Fantasize’ comes out— was stolen. Thieves, pirates, crooks, illegal. I’ll pay you more to put it away, like to get it back.”
According to Billboard, some “super-fans” of major singers have been known to band together to “do group buys on Discord,” where they’ll raise money to buy unauthorized leaks from hackers.
The singer also didn’t name which show they were written for, but some fans online theorize that “Fantasize” was meant for Girls5Eva, a show starring Sara Bareilles that follows a Y2K-era girl group that reunites after years away from the limelight.
However, fans who loved “Fantasize” will have something to look forward to when Eternal Sunshine drops on Mar. 8.
“I kind of gave them Ariana’s version of that on the album, I would say that exists. Some of those seedling ideas from that time actually made their way onto the album, which is really exciting but they’re completely different now so although you’ve heard them because you stole them, again, they’re very different now," she said. "So that’s exciting too.”
