Ariana Grande’s Releasing New Music & It’s All About Her Favorite Makeup Look

Something’s in the 2024 air, aside from just the blistering cold. After nearly three full years of musical silence, it sure looks like Ariana Grande’s new album is imminently arriving, and she’s pulling out all the stops to ensure that the AG7 era is her biggest, best, and most ambitious undertaking yet. She’s been teasing the release for a few weeks now, but has been focusing on one particular beauty trend that seems to hint at the theme of her upcoming record. Grande’s posting red lips of all different sorts on her Instagram story and her grid, sharing photos submitted by lipstick’d fans and promotional flyers featuring the look as well. What, exactly, is the superstar planning?

Ever one for engaging her legion of Arianators, Grande seemingly started laying the breadcrumbs for her album rollout back in December. In one of her only public outings of 2023, a night out on Broadway, she paired a black velvet gown with opera-length gloves and glossy red lipstick. She’s worn the shade a few times before over the years, but largely sticks to more demure lip colors to put a more concentrated focus on her eye makeup. The shakeup was significant enough to pique fans’ interest, and it was only bolstered by the stack of promo postcards — and cryptic “see you next year” note — she shared on Instagram only weeks later.

It’s kind of the ultimate tie-in for her beauty brand, R.E.M., too, which just celebrated its second anniversary. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that Grande’s posted herself in the studio and has been sharing #redlipsforAG7 selfies, many would assume that this is just a brilliant campaign for a new lipstick line.

It’s still unclear if the actual lyrics feature red lipstick mentions or if it’s more of a visual theme, but what we do know is that it could truly drop any day now. Grande keeps notoriously mum in between projects — she’s also wrapping up the final shoot days for the upcoming Wicked film adaptation — and only pops up when her projects are ready for real rollout.

So much has happened to the star since she released 2020’s Positions, and there’s no doubt that she’ll discuss it all at great length on the new album. Stay tuned.