Ariana Grande completed her 41-date Eternal Sunshine tour with an emotional final performance at London’s O2 Arena on Tuesday, before stepping back from public life for an extended break. The 33-year-old singer became tearful during the sold-out show, which brought her 10-night London residency and the three-month tour to a close. Speaking to the audience from the stage about halfway through the two-hour concert, Grande thanked fans for making the tour “one of the most beautiful, extraordinary experiences of my life”.
I have the best fans in the entire world and I always have.” “And I love your outfits, I love your faces, I love seeing you, I love connecting with you in this way. Thank you for all of your effort for making this so special,” she added. I have loved every minute of this with you all and I just want to make sure I express how grateful I am.
Thank you, and I love you so much.” Grande began the tour with three shows in Oakland, California, in June and went on to perform a total of 41 shows across North America and London, with the final 10 taking place at the O2 Arena. Just like her penultimate show, she wore flat, above-the-knee boots, having announced earlier that she would need to wear “cosy footwear” on stage after suffering a “deep cut” to her foot. The Wicked star also changed the lyrics to “thank you, next”.
While the “Side to Side” singer didn’t confirm publicly that they were back, she made an Instagram post in August of the two together. In a review of Grande’s show, The Independent’s Adam White wrote that the staging was “confined to the burnt-out husk of a house, which is first engulfed in flames, then weeds, then flowers, while police car sirens and helicopter spotlights suggest violent state surveillance”. Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial.
This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. Is this a symbolic... death?” he wrote. In a statement issued in August, the singer said she looked forward to “finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny”.
At a show in Chicago soon after, the “we can’t be friends” singer read from a prepared note, telling her fans that the announcement wasn’t “a reactive or impulsive thing”. Her hiatus will take her out of the forthcoming London revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George at the Barbican. Grande had been due to appear opposite her Wicked co-star Jonathan Bailey, who announced on Tuesday that he too was withdrawing from the production.
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