Within three weeks, Ariana Grande’s out-of-the-blue Instagram post and four-word caption, “see you next year,” garnered over three million likes and thousands of reposts.
Grande’s official announcement of her “Eternal Sunshine” tour on Aug. 28 marks the end of her six year absence from the stage. Scheduled to take place in the summer of 2026 across numerous North American cities as well as the United Kingdom, the Grammy-winning singer and songwriter caused a stir of reactions.
Just this past December, Grande told Variety that she would not be touring ‘anytime soon’ due to her acting commitments in Wicked 2, scheduled to release this November, following her touring hiatus during the filming of “Wicked.”
“I think she did a really great job as Glinda…I love her music and I think Wicked is one of her best pieces of work, especially because [she is] returning back to her roots as a musical theater artist,” senior Lily Richardson said.
Nonetheless, her unexpected announcement for the upcoming “Eternal Sunshine” tour and the end of her hiatus was met with much excitement.
“I scream[ed], really,” junior Indira Regina Parrado Suarez said. “I told my mom, but she said [to choose between] Kali Uchis or Ariana Grande. And I was like, how can she say that.”
Grande’s previous “Sweetener World Tour” concluded in December of 2019, after promoting her albums “Sweetener” and “thank u, next.” Since then, she has released several new albums, including “Positions” in 2020 and “eternal sunshine” in 2024, the latter of which debuted No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums in its first two weeks and will be the highlight of her upcoming tour.
“The older songs [are] more powerful and she has the energy, but…[her new songs are] more emotional,” Parrado Suarez said.
Besides releasing in the same year as Wicked, Grande’s “eternal sunshine” has deeper film connections absent from her previous works. The album was inspired by the 2004 romantic sci-fi, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” which documents the story of two ex-lovers who go to extreme lengths to erase all memories of their relationship. Grande referenced similar themes about moving on and healing from mental health struggles in her own “eternal sunshine” during her recent speech at the 2025 VMA awards.
Alongside the excitement from her announcement however, came fierce competition amongst fans trying to purchase tickets for the event. The tickets, which went on sale to the general public on Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 10 a.m. local time, sold out within minutes. Ten million fans signed up for London’s presale alone, while three million waited in queues for East Coast dates.
“I would like to establish that Ariana Grande is probably one of the leading pop artists of our generation and one of the biggest artists in general right now,” Swibel said. “That should have already set the stage for how the tour should be.”
Grande recently added dates to her tour, but they are simply not accessible to everyone. The East Coast currently only has three locations and London is currently the only location outside of the U.S.
“A few days before the tickets went on sale, my friends signed up for presale, and the sign-up was open for a long time, so a lot of people did it,” junior Rafaella Castro said. “Everyone got the code, but they got sent to the back of the line. It was impossible. Then the next day, for general sale, it was also impossible because all of the tickets were already sold, which is not what presale is about.”
Thousands of fans have been left empty-handed despite signing up for presale access.
“Ariana Grande is at a point in her career where she can kinda do what she wants because she isn’t dependent on ticket sales to support her career,” said junior Aaron Swibel. “It was pretty shocking to see even the famous HQ accounts and fan accounts that work with Ariana’s teams not get tickets to her tour.”
Resale markets and bots have made the situation worse.
“The six-ticket limit is unfair, especially since it’s a smaller tour with smaller venues,” Castro said. “There have been a lot of bots on Ticketmaster and reselling tickets for thousands of dollars. People are grabbing what they can, and if they get those tickets, they profit off it.”
Grande posted a response on Instagram on Saturday, Sept. 13, writing that she is “incredibly bothered” by “what’s been happening with the secondary ticket resellers” and is “fighting for a solution.” In the meantime, fans continue to wait for updates and think of ways to address the situation.
“In history, we didn’t see this kind of hysteria. Music should be about the music, not the money,” Swibel said. Now the listener can’t even see the artist, and the artist has to worry about their value being validated by ticket prices. It’s just sad to see.”
