Ariana Grande’s newest album, Eternal Sunshine, is full of details about her love life (Picture: Ariana Grande/Instagram)
Ariana Grande’s new album, Eternal Sunshine, starts with a question: ‘How do I know if I’m in the right relationship, if I found the right person?’ The final track, which memorably features the singer’s grandmother (feat. Nonna), answers that question.
But what happens in between – the album’s other 11 songs – reveals so much more about the singer’s perspective on love.
The album, almost entirely written by Grande, is unquestionably a meditation on her 2023 divorce from Dalton Gomez and her new controversial relationship with musical theatre actor, Ethan Slater. Many of the lyrics are direct and unflinching, not offering fans easter eggs about her personal life but rather full treatises.
For a project with such a cheerful title, it has a decidedly pensive tone and is often morose, though it still deals in the sugary pop beats Grande is known for. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Charlie Kaufman’s 2004 film about a couple who choose to erase the memories of their relationship from their minds, supposedly served as a major inspiration for Grande’s concept of the album, and it’s not hard to see the common themes.
Much of the album is about the painful repercussions of a breakup and the lingering resentment and love that remains afterward. The second song on the album, entitled Bye, is a triumphant declaration of independence. Grande sings: ‘Maybe, someday we’ll look back with love / Didn’t think you’d lose me / Now it’s just too late to choose me.’
The next track, don’t wanna break up again, starts with the scathing accusation that the person she’s talking about (presumably Gomez) turned up the TV to drown out the sound of her crying. Grande goes on to sing: ‘You didn’t even try.’
We’ve taken a deep dive into her lyrics (Picture: Ariana Grande/Instagram)
The tone changes drastically in the next track, Saturn Returns Interlude, which is a short monologue about how the astrological event of Saturn returning forces one to wake up to who they really are. The interlude signals an obvious shift in the album’s tone, transitioning seamlessly into the title track, Eternal Sunshine.
In the eponymous track, grief shifts to something with a little more teeth. Grande sings: ‘I showed you all my demons, all my lies / Yet you played me like Atari / Now it’s like I’m lookin’ in the mirror / Hope you feel alright when you’re in her.’ It’s not a massive leap to see this as a subtle cheating accusation aimed at Gomez. She goes on to display something like acceptance, singing: ‘I found a good boy and he’s on my side,’ evidently referring to Slater.
The song’s hook (You’re just my eternal sunshine) is a clever bate and switch. On the surface, it seems like a romantic aphorism, but given the rest of the song’s lyrics and that Grande has confirmed the album was inspired by Kaufman’s heartbreaking film, it’s clear Grande is saying she wishes she could forget the relationship she’s singing about.
She leaves her marriage to Gomez behind in the next track, Supernatural, a romantic pop ballad in which Grande sings: ‘Love’s possessing me but I don’t mind at all.’ Things get steamy in the second verse: ‘Need your hands all up on my body / Like the moon needs thе stars (Like the moon needs the stars) / Nothin’ еlse felt this way inside me / Boy, let’s go too far.’
The next track, true story, can be read as a statement about the intense public scrutiny Grande weathered when her relationship with Slater was first made public.
Ariana and Dalton split in February 2023 (Picture: Instagram)
She’s now in a relationship with Ethan Slater (Picture: Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock)
Slater, who was separated but not divorced from his wife when he met Grande, was accused by many of infidelity at the beginning of their relationship. Grande faced similar accusations. While the couple has continued to claim that there was no overlap with their previous relationships, a portion of the lyrics in the song have raised eyebrows: ‘Turnin’ like a dime (Dime) / wastin’ all their time / Sneakin’ like a creep in the night / But I’ll play whatever part you need me to.’
She also hits back at critics of her relationship, singing: ‘See it in your eyes / (Eyes), you got too much time / For fun, you like to pray for my demise, mm / But I’ll play whatever part you need me to / And I’ll be good in it, too.’
Things get romantic again on the boy is mine, a sensual exploration of a fiery connection. The most notable lyric comes early in the song when Grande claims she’s usually ‘unproblematic,’ something some fans have suggested is not entirely accurate.
The album’s most dancey moment is yes, and?, one of the first singles Grande released ahead of the full project. The song got her into some hot water as fans took issue with the hostile tone of the track: ‘Your business is yours and mine is mine / Why do you care so much whose dick I ride?’ Grande lost nearly 400,000 Instagram followers in the wake of the song’s release. It’s an obvious middle finger to those who have insisted on criticising her relationship.
The next track, we can’t be friends (waiting for your love), slows things down again as Grande seems to once again reflect on her relationship with Gomez and fans reaction to her new relationship, declaring ‘we can’t be friends.’ She sings: ‘Cause I don’t wanna argue, but I don’t wanna bite / My tongue, yeah, I think I’d rather die / You got me misunderstood / But at least I look this good.’
Her latest album proves she knows herself better than ever (Picture: Matt Baron/REX/Shutterstock)
One of the best lyrics on the album shows up in the second verse: ‘Me and my truth we sit here in silence.’
Things get heart-wrenching in i wish i hated you, in which Grande speaks candidly about her failed marriage. Throughout the track she reflects on how part of her wishes things had been worse so she could truly hate her ex, but instead, she’s left with a mixture of heartbreak and love. She sings: ‘I rearrange my memories / I try to rewrite our life.’
The penultimate song is a meditation on Grande’s growing acceptance with her inability to be flawless, in her own eyes or those of the public. She seems to conclude that her new relationship allows her to be imperfect and wholly herself: ‘But I’ll love you like you need me to / Imperfect for you / Messy, completely distressed / But I’m not like that since I met you / Imperfect for you.’
Finally, on ordinary things (feat. Nonna), Grande’s grandmother answers the question that opens the album: How do I know if I’m in the right relationship? The moving voiceover, which is supposedly from a voice note Grande recorded of her Nonna, caps the album with the simple conclusion: You’ll just know.
Nonna says: ‘And when he’d come home and I’d see him, when he first gets off that train. It was like God almighty arrived. It was like seein’ daylight. I mean, I could’ve packed up and left a million times. You know? It’s not that we never fought. You can overcome that. You know? It-it’s very easy. And as I told her, never go to bed without kissin’ goodnight. That’s the worst thing to do, don’t ever, ever do that. And if you can’t, and if you don’t feel comfortable doing it, you’re in the wrong place, get out.’
In one of Grande’s most sonically mature albums to date, listeners are left with the impression that the singer knows herself better than ever, especially in matters of love.
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