Ariana Grande Calls Her Eternal Sunshine Tour a 'Corrective Experience'

Ariana Grande has described her ongoing Eternal Sunshine Tour as a "corrective experience," telling Broadway performer Jessica Vosk that she feels more present onstage than she did during her last tour.

The conversation took place during one of Grande's tour stops at Barclays Center in New York, as part of Vosk's "Vosk in the City" interview series. Vosk, best known for playing Elphaba in the musical Wicked, asked Grande about her "ascent" during the song "Supernatural" — the theatrical close of the show in which Grande is lifted above the stage. Billboard

Grande said she receives a tap on her hip when each side of her body is secured before she takes flight. She called the ascent "fun," "nice" and "wonderful." During test flights, she said, she thinks "Oh, this is something" — but once the song begins, the feeling shifts. She described it as "space, and it's real." To help herself enjoy the moment, she said she convinces herself she is "actually going somewhere." Billboard

Grande was candid about why this tour feels different from her previous one. She told Vosk that during her last tour she "wasn't necessarily in the same place in life" and was not able to be as present as she is now. She also joked that unlike the previous tour, this time she is wearing contact lenses and can actually see the audience from the stage. Billboard

Vosk praised Grande's fans as "some of the best fans in the universe," and Grande agreed that the love between herself and her audience is mutual. Billboard

The "corrective experience" language echoes what Grande told her Chicago concert audience earlier in August. At that show, she addressed her decision to step back from public life, calling the tour "the most healing, beautiful, corrective, magnificent, special experience of my life." Billboard

Grande had announced plans to take a break from public-facing work after the tour ends, citing "endless, ongoing public scrutiny" as the reason. The Guardian

The tour has been evolving since it kicked off roughly two months ago, with Grande tweaking elements of the show along the way, according to a Billboard recap published on 4 August. Her album Petal, released in July, is the official follow-up to Eternal Sunshine. Billboard Billboard

The Independent, reviewing the tour's London stop on 17 August, described the show as sombre, reflective and "often quite brilliant." The Independent

For fans, the Barclays Center conversation offers a rare glimpse into the mechanics and emotions behind a production that lifts its star — literally — above the crowd. The detail about the hip tap before flight, the contact lenses that let her see the audience for the first time, and the language of healing all paint a picture of a performer reckoning with where she has been and where she is now.