Ariana Grande has announced her first world tour in six years, scheduled for 2026, following a period of profound personal and professional reflection where she focused on healing her relationship with music and touring.
The Journey Back to Music
In a candid conversation with Nicole Kidman for Interview Magazine, published on Monday 24 November 2025, the 32-year-old global superstar opened up about this transformative process. "I’ve just been healing my relationship to music and touring over the past couple of years," Grande revealed. When probed further, she explained that this involved a significant re-evaluation of her approach to creating music.
She highlighted her 2024 album, Eternal Sunshine, as a pivotal moment, describing it as a "very different experience." Grande credited her time away from the spotlight with helping her separate her love for music from the complexities of fame. "I think the time away from it helped me reclaim certain pieces of it," she stated, adding that she learned to compartmentalise the pressures of her career.
How 'Wicked' Paved the Way
The singer and actress pointed to her role as Glinda in the blockbuster film Wicked as the catalyst for this positive change. Starring opposite Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba, Grande said the experience provided the "baby steps towards healing [her] relationship with music and touring."
"I think my time with Glinda and with acting really helped me build the strength to be able to do that," she told Kidman. Grande expressed immense gratitude, noting that while her career had previously held "traumas" for her, she now feels those negative associations "dissipating."
She also reflected on the difficulty of adjusting to her meteoric rise in pop music. "I hope this doesn’t sound ungrateful, but it’s just a big adjustment when your life changes in that very drastic way," Grande confessed. "I’m so grateful to be able to do what I love. I just wasn’t expecting certain pieces of it."
The Eternal Sunshine Tour and What Comes Next
In August 2025, Grande officially announced The Eternal Sunshine Tour, set to commence in June 2026. This major world tour will kick off in Oakland, California, with scheduled performances in multiple cities including:
- Los Angeles
- Austin
- Atlanta
- Chicago
- New York
- London
This will be her first tour since 2018's Sweetener tour. However, in a recent appearance on Amy Poehler's Good Hang podcast, Grande hinted that this upcoming tour might be her last for the foreseeable future.
"I do know that 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 concluded, describing the venture as a "One last hurrah!" for now. She emphasised a new philosophy of chasing projects that "feel very right in the moment," a balance between her pop roots and her lifelong passions for musical theatre and comedy.
