The ponytail is coming down. The high notes are getting archived. The thank u next era is actually ending.
Ariana Grande, the 32 year old pop phenomenon who’s dominated charts for over a decade, just dropped a bomb that sent shockwaves through the entire music industry. Her upcoming 2026 Eternal Sunshine tour? It’s her last. Her final bow. Her one last hurrah before she potentially walks away from touring forever.
Not next year. Not in five years. Potentially never again.
She didn’t announce this at a press conference or through a carefully crafted Instagram post. She casually revealed it on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast like she was discussing what she had for lunch. Except instead of lunch, she was discussing the end of one of pop music’s most successful touring careers.
“I think that’s why I’m doing it because I’m like, one last hurrah,” Grande said. “For now, anyway.”
For now. Those two words are carrying a lot of weight for 250 million fans worldwide who’ve made her the most followed woman on Instagram and streamed her songs billions of times. Because when Ariana Grande says she might not tour again for a “long, long, long, long time,” she’s not exaggerating for effect. She used “long” four times. Four.
This isn’t burnout. This isn’t a brief hiatus. This is a 32 year old woman who started performing at age 15 finally choosing herself over the machine. And the internet is absolutely spiraling. Share this with every Arianator you know because their world just shifted on its axis.
The Six Year Gap That Changed Everything
Let’s establish the timeline because it’s crucial to understanding why this announcement hits different.
Ariana Grande’s last tour was the Sweetener World Tour in 2019. That’s six years ago. Most pop stars tour every 18 to 24 months. Taylor Swift tours constantly. Beyoncé took a break and came back with Renaissance. Even artists who claim retirement keep coming back.
But Grande? Radio silence on the touring front for six full years.
During that time, she released two studio albums: Positions in 2020 and Eternal Sunshine in 2024. She got married to Dalton Gomez in 2021, then divorced in 2023. She started dating Ethan Slater. She filmed Wicked across 2022 and 2023 in London. She became a serious actress earning critical acclaim and Oscar buzz.
She also, apparently, decided she might never make music again.
In an October interview on Evan Ross Katz’s Shut Up Evan podcast, Grande revealed a secret she’d been keeping. “I didn’t think I was going to make an album ever again when I left for London. That was my secret, but I didn’t think I was going to.”
Let that sink in. When Ariana Grande flew to England to play Glinda in Wicked, she thought her pop career was over. Done. Finished. The woman who gave us thank u next, 7 rings, positions, and God is a woman was ready to hang up the microphone permanently.
What changed her mind? Playing a confident, self assured character helped her reconnect with parts of herself she’d lost through trauma.
Glinda Taught Ariana How To Be Ariana Again
Credits: THR
Here’s where the story gets interesting and deeply personal.
Grande explained to Evan Ross Katz how embodying Glinda, a character defined by certainty and self belief, literally rewired her brain. “Performing the act of Glinda, who is so sure of herself, and even when the decisions are hard… she had a connection to her gut that I think I kind of lost through trauma.”
Trauma. She didn’t elaborate on specifics, but Grande’s been open about experiencing PTSD after the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing that killed 22 people at her concert. She’s discussed anxiety, depression, and the psychological toll of living in the public eye since adolescence.
“It happens with trauma. That’s okay,” she continued. “But our work is to reconnect that. And I think through the act of performing it and Glinda’s certainty and Glinda’s belief in herself totally ignited something, a strength in me that I missed, that I really needed.”
Playing a fictional character helped her find her real self again. The irony is beautiful and heartbreaking.
Glinda constantly looks at herself in the mirror and peels away pieces that don’t feel aligned. Grande realized she needed to do the same. The caricatured version of Ariana Grande the pop star wasn’t serving Ariana the human anymore.
She worked through this with her therapist. She processed it while filming two massive musical films. And somewhere in that journey, she rediscovered her love for making music. Not because she had to. Because she genuinely wanted to.
That realization led to Eternal Sunshine, the album she recorded while filming Wicked. The project that reminded her why she fell in love with music in the first place.
Don’t miss what she said about why touring feels different now.
Why This Tour Feels Like A Goodbye
The Eternal Sunshine tour kicks off June 6, 2026 in Oakland, California. It wraps September 1 at London’s O2 Arena where Grande will perform an unprecedented 10 shows. Between those dates, she’ll hit select cities across North America and Canada.
Notice what’s missing. No massive world tour. No 100 plus dates. No stadium legs in Asia, Australia, or South America. This is intentionally small. Intimate by Ariana Grande standards.
“I’m very excited to do this small tour, but I think it might not happen again for a long, long, long, long time,” she told Amy Poehler.
Four longs. She’s emphasizing the point.
Grande described touring and creating pop music as “so self focused. You know, it’s singularly about the artist. And I think that that wears on my soul sometimes, especially because there’s the caricaturized version of me that is the artist.”
That’s incredibly vulnerable. Admitting that the thing that made you famous, wealthy, and beloved by millions also drains your soul? Most celebrities would never say that out loud.
But Grande’s done pretending. Her pop star persona is a character just like Glinda. And she’s tired of playing that character 24/7.
“I spent so much time only doing pop music, but I grew up as a girl who loved musical theatre and comedy,” she explained. The last 10 to 15 years of nonstop albums, tours, and pop star obligations consumed her. She wants the next chapter to look completely different.
The tour is happening because something inside told her it had to. “Something inside is saying 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 forever ago.”
She’s doing it as a goodbye. A thank you to fans. A celebration of Eternal Sunshine that she genuinely loves and needs to sing live. But also, closure.
The Acting Career That’s Taking Over
While Grande’s stepping back from music, she’s sprinting toward acting.
Wicked earned her universal critical acclaim. Critics praised her comedic timing, vocal performance, and emotional depth. She’s generating Oscar buzz for Best Supporting Actress. The film’s already made over $750 million globally with the sequel Wicked: For Good releasing November 21, 2025.
But she’s not stopping there. Grande just wrapped filming Focker In Law, the fourth installment of the Meet the Parents franchise. She stars alongside Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, and Beanie Feldstein.
Her character? A triathlete. Which meant doing burpees and high knees with Robert De Niro.
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this, but my character is a triathlete. I spent yesterday doing burpees and high knees with Robert De Niro. I’m like, what is this movie? What are we doing? But I’m having a blast. It’s really special,” she revealed on the podcast.
That’s the energy of someone falling in love with a new creative outlet. The excitement in her voice talking about acting is palpable in a way it hasn’t been about music recently.
“I’m so inspired by my castmates,” she gushed about working with Beanie Feldstein and the legendary cast. “She’s so funny, so wonderful.”
Grande’s choosing projects based on gut feeling rather than commercial calculation. “Chasing things that feel very right in the moment, even if it’s spontaneous and something different,” she explained.
That spontaneity led to Wicked. It led to Focker In Law. It’s leading her away from the structured, planned out cycles of album release, tour, promote, repeat that defined her twenties.
Share this with anyone who thinks celebrities have it easy. Success doesn’t equal happiness.
The Balance She’s Finally Finding
Here’s the profound shift Grande’s articulating. She’s learning that stepping away from one art form actually makes you better at it.
“You are able to do better by that art form because you’re appreciative and really able to feel present in it,” she told Poehler.
When your entire identity is wrapped up in being a pop star, you lose perspective. The grind becomes routine. The magic fades. But when you explore other passions, you rediscover why you loved the original thing in the first place.
“I just am feeling a lot more connected to myself and my art since I started doing different things,” Grande explained.
That connection led to her deciding to tour Eternal Sunshine. Not because her label demanded it. Not because it’s what pop stars do. Because she genuinely wanted to sing these songs live and thought it would be beautiful.
But she’s also realistic. “I think putting out the deluxe [version of Eternal Sunshine] informed me that I had to do it because I really felt like I’m going to be really sad if I don’t sing this album live. I love this album, and I need to sing it.”
She needs to. Not wants to. Needs to. There’s urgency there. A sense that if she doesn’t do this now, she’ll regret it forever because the window is closing.
“This probably won’t happen for a long time again after this one,” she emphasized.
The woman who was ready to quit music entirely when she left for Wicked filming is now so in love with this album that she has to tour it one final time. That’s growth. That’s healing. That’s choosing joy even when it’s scary.
What The Fans Are Saying (And It’s A Lot)
Social media exploded when this news broke. And the reactions are fascinatingly split.
One camp is devastated. “Ariana Grande retiring from touring is the worst news of 2025,” tweeted one fan with 50,000 likes. “I never got to see her live and now I never will.”
Another wrote: “She’s only 32. Most artists tour well into their 40s and 50s. This feels like she’s giving up.”
But the other camp? Fully supportive.
“Ariana Grande choosing her mental health and artistic fulfillment over money and fame is exactly what we should normalize,” one viral tweet stated. “Let her live.”
“She’s been performing since she was a child. She’s earned the right to do whatever makes her happy,” wrote another with widespread agreement.
The generational divide is notable. Younger fans who discovered Grande through TikTok are heartbroken they might never experience her live. Longtime fans who’ve followed her since Victorious days understand she’s been grinding for 17 years and deserves peace.
Ticket sales for the 2026 tour are going to be absolutely insane. When you brand something as potentially the last time ever, demand skyrockets. Expect presale chaos. Expect resale prices in the thousands. Expect emotional fans treating every show like a religious experience.
Because if this really is the end, everyone wants to be there.
The Manchester Connection Nobody’s Talking About
Here’s something that hasn’t been discussed enough in coverage of this announcement. Ariana Grande’s relationship with touring fundamentally changed after Manchester.
The 2017 terrorist attack at her concert killed 22 people, mostly children and teenagers. Grande was 23 years old. She organized and performed at the One Love Manchester benefit concert 13 days later, then completed her Dangerous Woman tour despite experiencing severe PTSD.
In 2019, she toured Sweetener and thank u next. Then stopped completely.
For six years, she hasn’t subjected herself to the vulnerability of standing on stage in front of thousands of people. The trauma of what happened hasn’t disappeared just because time passed.
Is it possible that finally feeling ready to tour again after six years represents massive healing? That Glinda helping her reconnect with certainty and gut instinct also helped her face that specific fear?
Grande hasn’t explicitly connected these dots publicly. But the timeline speaks volumes. She needed six years to feel safe enough to do this again. And she’s only willing to do it one more time before walking away potentially forever.
That’s not just about burnout or shifting creative interests. That’s about protecting her mental health and honoring her trauma while also giving fans one final experience.
The bravery in that decision deserves recognition.
What Happens After The Last Show
Let’s game this out. September 1, 2026. London’s O2 Arena. Ariana Grande takes her final bow. The lights go down. The crowd screams for an encore. She comes back out, performs one last song, and walks off stage.
Then what?
If she sticks to her word, and there’s no reason to think she won’t, the Ariana Grande pop star era ends. No more albums? Maybe eventually, but not for a long time. No more tours? Potentially never.
She’ll focus on acting. She’s got the Focker movie coming out. She’ll probably field offers for musicals given her Wicked success. Maybe dramatic roles to show range. Perhaps comedy since she grew up loving it.
She might release music occasionally. Singles here and there. Collaborations with other artists. Soundtrack work for films. But the days of album cycles and promotional tours? Likely over.
The pop culture landscape will shift. Ariana Grande has been a dominant force for over a decade. Her absence will create a vacuum. Someone will fill it eventually, but that transition will be notable.
Her legacy is already cemented. Seven Grammy Awards. Two Billboard Music Awards. Multiple number one albums and singles. Over 100 billion streams. Cultural impact through songs that defined moments (thank u next after the Pete Davidson breakup became a movement).
But legacies continue evolving. If she pivots to acting and becomes equally successful, she joins an elite group who conquered both music and film. If she wins an Oscar for Wicked, she’s an EGOT threat (she already has a Grammy).
The question is whether fans will follow her into this new chapter or mourn the loss of pop star Ariana forever.
The Tour Everyone Will Remember
Mark your calendars. June 6, 2026. Oakland, California. The Eternal Sunshine tour begins.
This will be different from any Ariana Grande tour before. The energy will be electric because everyone knows it’s potentially the last time. Fans will cry during thank u next. They’ll scream every word of 7 rings. They’ll hold up signs begging her not to quit.
And Ariana will give everything she has left. “I’m going to give it my all and it’s going to be beautiful,” she promised.
The setlist will probably span her entire career. Early hits from Yours Truly. Dangerous Woman classics. Sweetener and thank u next fan favorites. Heavy emphasis on Eternal Sunshine since it’s the tour’s namesake. Maybe surprise Wicked performances.
The production will be intimate compared to previous arena spectacles. She’s calling it a “small tour” for a reason. She wants connection over spectacle. Presence over performance.
And on September 1, when the last note fades at the O2 Arena, an era ends. Not just for Ariana Grande. For everyone who grew up with her music as the soundtrack to their lives.
Drop a comment: Will you be trying to get tickets to the Eternal Sunshine tour? Which Ariana era defined your life? Share this with your concert buddy because if this really is the last time, you don’t want to miss it.
Follow for updates on presale dates and final tour details. Because when one of pop’s biggest stars says goodbye, every moment matters.
When Ariana Grande walks off that stage in London for the final time, she won’t be ending a career. She’ll be starting a life. And honestly? After everything she’s been through, she deserves to chase whatever makes her soul light up. Even if it means the rest of us have to say goodbye to the pop star who soundtracked a generation.
