“Yes and?” It marks the pop icon’s return to music after she told Allure in 2021 that she was taking a break to focus on “new versions of storytelling.” Grande won her first Grammy Award in the Best Pop Vocal Album category for “Sweetener” in 2019 and another Grammy Award in 2021 for “Rain On Me,” a dance-pop song she performed with Lady Gaga. Her latest album, “Positions,” released in 2020, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, and its lead single of the same name was nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance.
During Grande’s solo music hiatus, she occupied herself with television and film jobs. Most recently, she was cast as Glinda alongside Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba in the new two-part film adaptation “Wicked,” which is set to premiere at the end of this year.
In 2021, Grande also served as a judge on “The Voice” and had a minor role in the sci-fi film “Don’t Look Up.”
She also launched a cosmetics line, REM Beauty, which boasts “a world of vivid dreams and limitless possibilities” on its website and shares its name with one of her songs. The brand’s next drop on Tuesday is a limited-edition collection that nods to its debut album, “Yours Truly.”
In the past year, Grande has remained quiet amid struggles in her personal life, including her breakup and divorce from Dalton Gomez, and rumors that she was dating her “Wicked” co-star Ethan Slater. However, she urged viewers to stop making assumptions about her health based on her body after fans commented on her slim frame.
“I think we should be kinder and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what,” she said on TikTok.
In “Yes, and?”, she defends herself against body shaming again: “Don’t comment on my body, don’t respond / Your business is yours and mine is mine.”
Grande’s supporters, called Arianators, have been looking forward to new music from the pop artist since late last year, when she announced that her seventh studio album, dubbed AG7, would be released this year.
The singer announced the release date of “Yes, And?” on Instagram on Sunday, alongside a photo of the song’s cover — a blurry photo of her wearing bright red lipstick.