Ariana Grande Honours Dolly Parton With Pre-Show Video at London's O2

Before Ariana Grande took the stage at London's O2 Arena on August 27, concertgoers watched a video of Dolly Parton singing "I Will Always Love You" — a memorial tribute to the country music icon, who died at age 80. Billboard

The clip played as a standalone pre-show element, separate from Grande's setlist. Parton wrote and recorded "I Will Always Love You" in 1974. The song reached a global audience through Whitney Houston's rendition for the 1992 film The Bodyguard, but Parton's own recording remained the version Grande chose to screen for her audience.

The London stop is part of Grande's Eternal Sunshine Tour, her first major trek since 2019. She began a residency at the O2 on August 15, 2026, with 10 shows booked at the venue. The run has already produced its own headlines: during the second night, August 16, Grande was joined onstage by her Wicked co-star Cynthia Erivo. People

Grande has spoken about the tour in personal terms. She described it as a "corrective experience" and said she feels more present during it than on past treks. Billboard The tour was scheduled to wrap on September 1, after which Grande planned to step back from public visibility. An August 2 statement cited ongoing public scrutiny as the reason for the planned break. Billboard

For fans filing into the O2, the Parton tribute sat at an unusual point in the evening — after the doors opened, before the lights went down on Grande's set. Placing a memorial outside the performance itself let the crowd sit with it without folding it into the spectacle of a pop concert. The choice of song carried its own weight: "I Will Always Love You" is a farewell lyric, and Parton's own voice was the one that filled the arena.