Ariana Grande’s teases about a forthcoming album are suddenly getting more specific. In a tweet Wednesday morning, the singer made the immediacy clear: “I can’t wait to give u my album this month,” she wrote.
Assuming she’s not forecasting an album that’s only two days away, Grande’s vow would seem to augur for an album release on either Oct. 23 or 30, the two remaining traditional Friday drop dates during the calendar month.
Previously, it’d only seemed like a release before the end of the year might be in store, as Grande’s previous tweet on the matter Oct. 7 read: “Turning in these mixes and reminding u again to register to vote if u haven’t already / to vote early.” (Grande has been more get-out-the-vote-focused than music-focused in much of her feed in recent weeks.)
Little is known about the upcoming album, which follows a little less quickly on the heels of early 2019’s “Thank U, Next” than that album did on the heels of late 2018’s “Sweetener.”
Grande did post snippets of vocals from a forthcoming track, “brb,” four weeks ago on Instagram.
The album is especially anticipated commercially because of the dearth of recent superstar releases, outside of the realm of hip-hop, which has continued to see a steady flow of fresh albums. Aside from Taylor Swift’s “Folklore,” which hit No. 1 for seven weeks, what few big-name pop albums that have come out in 2020 have had a hard time spending more than a week at the top of the charts, i that.
Fans are expecting that a track Grande recorded with Doja Cat will make the cut. In May, Grande mentioned it in an interview she did with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. At the time, Grande seemed to be in no hurry to release music during the pandemic. But she said, “I was able to work with [Doja] earlier this year on this song that I want to save for whenever it’s time again to drop. … I remember when I first wrote it and sent it to her, she was in the shower and she was like, ‘B—-, I love this.’ I was like, ‘Okay, there’s no rush. I’m not putting out a project anytime soon, whatever.’ And I think it was the next morning or something she called me back, and she was twerking to it; her hair was falling off — she twerked so hard that her wig fully flew off! She had a whole verse done, everything was done. .. It’s so much fun, and I love it. It’s my favorite so far.”
More recently, Grande has dedicated most of her social media to voter consciousness, especially in regard to Florida. Prior to the new post about the coming album, Grande posted photos of her dog supposedly delivering her mail-in ballot, followed by a photo of Kamala Harris smiling during the vice presidential debate. Of that same debate, she earlier wrote, “Hello! If last night’s debate didn’t light a fire under your ass i’m not quite sure what will.”