Ariana Grande recently shared that she won’t be releasing new music any time soon because she is prioritizing preparation for “Wicked.”
The “Positions” singer said she’s turning her full attention to making the movie adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, in which she’s been cast as Glinda.
“This is a question I’m nervous to answer, but I feel like I want to have a little bit of transparency and honesty with my fans,” the singer said in a Q&A video posted to her R.E.M. Beauty YouTube channel. “The truth is, I have not begun an album.”
She continued, “I know. I hear through the grapevine that you have a lot of theories and expectations in that department but, after ‘Positions,’ [I] was not ready to start another album yet. So I have not begun another album.”
The singer said that decision came as she heard murmurs that there would be a casting call for the upcoming “Wicked” movies and she “went into full preparation mode” to score the role of her dreams.
“I know the material like the back of my hand, but I still have so much to learn,” she said of the role she’s coveted since she was small. “I went pretty hard getting ready.”
Her hard work paid off with “the most incredible gift of my entire life” — starring opposite Tony-winner Cynthia Erivo’s Elphapba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Because this is a dream role, the “Side to Side” singer said she is dedicating “every piece of me, every minute, every ounce of my heart, my time, my everything that I can give it … I am spending all my time with Glinda.”
“So my hands are quite full,” she said.
Grande’s last album was 2020’s “Positions.”
