For those experiencing pandemic-related concert withdrawal, Ariana Grande and Netflix are offering respite.
Relief is coming in the form of the concert movie of Grande’s 2019 “Sweetener” world tour, called “Excuse Me, I Love You.” It will premiere on the streaming service globally on Dec. 21.
The Sweetener World Tour, which concluded a year ago, featured hits like “God Is a Woman,” “7 Rings” and “No Tears Left to Cry.” She also performed past favorites such as “Love Me Harder,” “Dangerous Woman” and “Side to Side.”
Variety’s review of the Los Angeles stop of the tour called the show “a thing of inventive beauty.”
“If you want a pop show that’s giddy, splendorous, beautifully designed, expertly performed and almost a little bit avant-garde in its staging,” Variety’s Chris Willman wrote in May of 2019, “you’ve come to the right place.”
Unlike, say, Taylor Swift or other musicians who get personal with the crowd, Grande isn’t known for delivering monologues between songs.
“If you’re willing to swap all the personal asides you might expect out of a typical pop-diva show for something that’s more of an experimental visual art piece that happens to include terrifically fun songs and performances, it’s not such a bad tradeoff,” Willman wrote.
Shortly after Grande released “Sweetener,” her fourth album, she dropped another critical smash in early 2019, “Thank U, Next.” She followed that up last October with her sixth album, “Positions,” which Variety said “wins by focusing on upbeat, down-tempo romanticism.”
Netflix has partnered with artists for concert films, including “Springsteen on Broadway” and “Ben Platt Live From Radio City Music Hall,” as well as documentaries like Beyonce’s “Homecoming,” Taylor Swift’s “Miss Americana,” Shawn Mendes’ “In Wonder” and “Blackpink: Light Up the Sky.”