Grande's Emotional Tour Return
Ariana Grande Kicks Off Eternal Sunshine Tour, Marking Emotional Return to Live Performing
Ariana Grande kicked off her highly anticipated Eternal Sunshine Tour in Oakland, marking her first major solo tour since 2019 and signaling her return to large-scale performing after years spent largely on acting, including her acclaimed role as Glinda in the Wicked films. The opening show mixed tracks from her new “Eternal Sunshine” era with fan favorites from across her catalog, pairing elaborate staging and frequent costume changes with moments of visible emotion as she embraced being back onstage. Critics and outlets highlighted live debuts tied to her latest material, including multiple songs from the Petal era alongside established hits such as “the boy is mine,” “supernatural,” and “hate that i made you love me.” USA Today also noted that while the production spanned much of her 13-year recording history, it left out Wicked soundtrack songs, even as her screen success figured prominently in the narrative of her career pivot. The tour is set to run across North America and internationally, with dates extending into late summer and beyond, and will support her forthcoming album Petal arriving in late July. Fans also circulated setlist expectations ahead of and immediately after the launch, reflecting broad excitement for how much of her catalog she would include.
Key Points
At the Oakland Arena stop, Grande delivered a cluster of full-on live debuts—“dandelion,” “just like magic,” “warm,” “twilight zone,” “past life,” “Hampstead,” and “hate that i made you love me”—and also brought back multiple older tracks for the first time since specific years (e.g., “One Last Time,” “Break Free,” “Dangerous Woman,” and the original “Honeymoon Avenue” for the first time since 2019; “thank u, next” and “Rain On Me” since 2020; and “safety net” and “positions” since 2021).
Multiple reports of the show emphasized signature staging moments: costume changes that included a “dominatrix-style cat costume,” and an ending visual in which Grande “ended the show by levitating into the ceiling.”
USA Today highlighted the personal emotion behind the spectacle, noting Grande told the Oakland crowd, “I missed you,” as she wiped away tears—framing her return as both a production and a visibly emotional homecoming.
USA Today also provided tour logistics beyond the general ‘North America and internationally’ framing: it described a 41-date “Eternal Sunshine” run that kicked off June 6 (with three northern California shows), listed additional stops including Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, and Fort Lauderdale, and said the outing sold out instantly upon announcement and will conclude with a 10-show wrap in London.
One setlist rundown broke the concert into five “acts” with a 25-song arc—from “yes, and?” and “positions” in Act One, through “Saturns Returns Interlude” and “eternal sunshine” in Act Two, to “ordinary things (outro)” closing Act Five—offering a structural detail not included in the general tour recap.
Sentiment
Mostly PositivePublishers
27
Articles
19
Reach
46
