What better way to learn about Ariana Grande‘s journey with love than directly from her?
On Friday, Grande released her seventh studio album Eternal Sunshine, which chronicles the singer’s personal experience as she deals with the painful end of one relationship and the start of an exciting new one.
Rolling Stone described Eternal Sunshine as “a divorce album that goes through all the stages of grief” and captures Grande while she “navigates a new beginning with some of the most honest and inventive songs of her career so far.”
The album arrives a few months after her love life made headlines: Last summer, her romance with Wicked co-star Ethan Slater went public. Slater was married but separated from his wife Lily Jay. After the news, Slater filed for divorce and Jay accused Grande of not being “a girl’s girl,”” saying that her family had been “just collateral damage” in a tabloid. At the time, Grande had recently broken things off with her husband Dalton Gomez. They split up after nearly three years together.
On Eternal Sunshine, she sets to record straight.
From love songs to breakup anthems, here’s everything we learned about Grande’s divorce (and new love) on Eternal Sunshine:
“Intro (End of the World)”
A vinyl record crackles and a dreamy introduction sets the tone for the healing-from-a-breakup themes on much of the album
“How can I tell if I’m in the right relationship?” Grande sings off the bat. “Aren’t you really supposed to know that shit? Feel it in your bones and own that shit?”
The singer describes her anxieties surrounding interactions with her partner and the possibility of a relationship’s end in the rest of the short song. “If the moon went dark tonight and if it all ended tomorrow, would I be the one on your mind your mind?” she sings. “And if it all ended tomorrow, would you be the one on mine?”
“Bye”
“Bye” is Eternal Sunshine’s “Thank U, Next.”
The second track sees the singer coming to terms with the end of the relationship as she declares: “At least I know how hard we tried, both you and me.” She repeats in the refrain “Boy bye, it’s over.”
Though Grande has yet to share details about the end of her relationship with Gomez, on “Bye,” she describes the literal moment she moved on — and how decisive she felt when did.
“So I grab my stuff/Courtney just pulled up in the driveway,” she sings, referring to her best friend Courtney Chipolone. “It’s time. Boy, bye.”
“Don’t Wanna Break Up Again”
Grande reflects on a “sleepless night” filled with tears when she realized that “this situationship has to end” — and that she no longer will blame herself for all of her relationship’s issues. As the song’s title suggests, she’s been through this before.
“I made it so easy/spent so much on therapy/blamed my own codependency, but you didn’t even try,” she sings. “When you finally did it was at the wrong time/won’t abandon me again for you and I.”
Even with all the hurt, Grande takes the high road as she sings about not wanting to “fuck with [his] head,” and opting for a positive farewell: “Hope you’ll still think fondly of our little life.”
“Eternal Sunshine”
On “Eternal Sunshine,” Grande and her partner move on.
In the opening section of the song, she reflects on her partner’s habit of not telling the truth. As the song progresses, she looks back at the times she was “played like Atari” as she convinces herself to no longer feel sorry for him.
“Hope you feel alright when you’re in her/I found a good boy and he’s on my side,” she sings. “You’re just my eternal sunshine.” Ouch!
“True Story”
This is as close as Grande gets to @’ing her man’s ex.
On “True Story,” Grande takes on the villainization she faced after the Lilly Jay situtation. She sings about being OK with playing the villain who’s “sneaking like a creep in the night.
“I’ll play the bad girl if you need me to/if it makes you feel better/I’ll be the one you love to hate,” she sings. “Can’t relate/Too much on my plate.” It’s all a hater fantasy.
She later sings: “You got too much time/for fun you like to pray for my demise, but I’ll play whatever part you need me to. And I’ll be good in it too.”
“The Boy Is Mine”
Grande follows “True Story” with sexy lyrics about her “divine” new boy that’s all hers and no one else’s — even if she can’t pinpoint what it is about him that she loves most.
“Something about him is made for somebody like me,” she sings, later adding, “I know [it’s] simply meant to be.”
She also admits that she wasn’t planning to fall in love when she did. “Promise you I’m not usually like this it’s like this/Shit, it’s like news to me/to me,” she sings. “But I can’t ignore my heart.”
“We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)”
“We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” hears Grande question whether she can become friends with someone she used to love. “But I don’t wanna bite/my tongue yeah I think I’d rather die,” she sings. “You got me misunderstood but at least I look this good.”
Grande reflects on their old love story in the lyrics. In the music video, starring Evan Peters, she recreates the plot of Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind and opts to erase all memories of her ex. As she looks back at their lives together, she regrets getting rid of those good times from her mind.
“Know that you made me/I don’t like how you paint me, yet I’m still here hanging,” she sings in the bridge. “Not what you made me/It’s somethin’ like a daydream.”
“I Wish I Hated You”
Healing from heartbreak seems to be easier when you despise the person you left behind, On “I Wish I Hated You,” Grande sings to a former partner with whom things ended nicely — and maybe things would be easier if it hadn’t been that way.
“Wish there was worse to you/I wish you were worse to me,” she sings. “I wish I hated you.”
“Ordinary Things”
Grande ends Eternal Sunshine with a sweet ode to her man as she describes how it doesn’t matter what they do together — everything with him feels special.
“You hit just like the first sip of wine after a long day/You hit like my biggest fan when I hear what the critiques say,” she sings. “You just like a green light when i’m stuck runnin’ real late/ idon’t need no diamonds/just your time.”
The album’s outro hears the singer’s grandma, Nonna, speaking about her own experience with love: how seeing her partner was “like seeing daylight” and how she learned to “never go to bed without kissing goodnight.”
“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,” Nonna says, before Grande giggles, and the album ends.
Grande always knew this was the last song on the record, since Nonna seemed to answer the first line on the album: “How can I tell if I’m in the right relationship?”
“I wonder how I can put that button on it and have it land emotionally the way that I feel it can, and how can I answer the question?” Grande explained to Zane Lowe on Apple Music Radio 1. “I had this 30-minute voice note of her and her friend, Shirley, talking. It was just right smack in the middle of it, and I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s the answer.’”
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