Ariana Grande is standing by her “Petal” music video, which recently thrust her into the center of heightened public scrutiny concerning her appearance.
In a Wednesday (Aug. 5) post on Instagram — under which the pop star limited comments — Grande shared behind-the-scenes snaps of herself and her costars on set of the visual, which dropped five days prior. In one photo, she and director Christian Breslauer observe a monitor showing the camera’s angle while filming a scene in which she stands covered in fake blood, and in another picture, a friend laughs while groping one of the artificial breasts Grande sported during a different scene.
“i love this video with my entire heart,” the Grammy winner wrote in the caption. “[I] must express my deepest, endless gratitude to my brilliant collaborators and friends who have brought this song of mine to life with me and who helped tell this story … thank you to everyone who gave their brilliance, care and time.”
Arriving on the same day as Grande’s eighth studio album, Petal, the title track’s video takes aim at the critics who’ve spent years tearing into her looks and personal life. Playing an aspiring entertainer named Pepper, she undergoes a series of auditions — repeatedly applying feedback from executives on how she should change her appearance, from getting “work done” to offering more “sex appeal” — before ultimately hacking away at the never-satisfied commenters with a chainsaw.
Ironically, the chatter surrounding Grande’s appearance was seemingly never louder than right after the video dropped, with countless people online expressing negative reactions in particular to how slender the star looks in the project. A couple of days later, her rep told People that the Victorious alum was planning to take “a step back from visibility” after her Eternal Sunshine Tour concludes in early September.
“She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny,” the statement noted at the time.
The following night, however, Grande took the stage in Chicago and stressed that the break — which involves her dropping out of the cast of the upcoming West End revival of Sunday in the Park With George — was not a “reactive” decision.
“It is something that I had decided,” she told fans at the United Center. “It’s a plan that I had quietly made a long time ago, and it’s a decision that was made from a thoughtful and empowered place … Multiple things can be true at the same time. Boundaries can need to be set. Human beings can need a break sometimes.”
Grande will play two more shows in Chicago on Wednesday (Aug. 5) and Thursday (Aug. 6), after which she’ll travel to London for 10 tour-closing nights at the O2 Arena. The trek — which supports three-week Billboard 200-topping album Eternal Sunshine — will wrap on Sept. 1
Watch the “Petal” music video below.
