She Loves Her Fans and Has Loved Every Minute of This Tour So Much

Ariana Grande is stepping back from public life after her current tour ends, citing “endless, ongoing public scrutiny, and has withdrawn from a planned London stage production. The singer was set to reunite with her Wicked co-star Jonathan Bailey in a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George at the Barbican in summer 2027. A representative for Grande told People: “Ariana will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour. She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny.

This tour has been a beautiful experience for her. She loves her fans and has loved every minute of this tour so much. Production company Empire Street Productions confirmed the recasting, saying in a statement: “We know this cannot have been an easy decision, and she makes it with our complete understanding and support.

We wish her nothing but the best. The production will open at the Barbican in summer 2027 as planned, and casting will be announced in due course. The musical, created by Sondheim and James Lapine, debuted on Broadway in 1984 starring Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters.

It is inspired by Georges Seurat’s painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Grande’s announcement came days after releasing the music video for Petal, the title single from her eighth studio album, which sparked speculation about her weight and health. One of her new songs, Like I Do, includes a possible dig at years of headlines about her weight: “I’ve got shit to talk, keeps me well fed.

In a 2024 interview, she described herself as “a specimen in a petri dish since I was 16 or 17. I have heard it all. I have heard every form of what is wrong with me. And then you fix it and then it is wrong for different reasons.

She added: “It is hard to protect yourself from that noise. I think that it’s something that is uncomfortable no matter what scale you’re experiencing it on. Comments about weight could be “uncomfortable” and “horrible, she said.

“From what you are wearing, to your body, to your face, to your everything – there is a comfortability that people have commenting on that that I think is really dangerous. I think it is dangerous for all parties involved. Grande shared the interview again on social media in November “as a loving reminder to all.

The Eternal Sunshine tour will arrive in the UK in August with a 10-night residency at the O2, and her final London show on 1 September will mark the end of the tour. Grande has won three Grammy awards since her 2013 debut album, Yours Truly, and was nominated for an Oscar for her role as Glinda in the film adaptation of Wicked.”””””””””