Celebrity
Ariana Grande Is In Her Red Era For Eternal Sunshine
“It looks like the music to me.”
Ariana Grande is in her red era — no, not the Taylor Swift album. The singer has been sporting lots of crimson lately, especially in the visuals of her upcoming seventh studio album, Eternal Sunshine. In a recent interview on The Zach Sang Show, she confirmed that red is her new era’s color for a special reason.
While some fans may associate the color with Grande’s Victorious character, Cat Valentine, and her iconic hair, she actually had another pop culture figure in mind. “I did like the tie-in of Clementine’s hair from Eternal Sunshine [of the Spotless Mind],” she said, nodding to Kate Winslet’s character in the 2004 movie, which inspired the concept of her entire album.
While Winslet sports both red and blue hair in the movie, Grande said the “bold” nature of the red matched the “emotional tone” of her new album better. “It looks like the music to me,” she said. Therefore, it was only natural that red was a huge aspect of the Eternal Sunshine visuals, from the many album covers to the color of the vinyl itself.
Ariana’s Red Looks
The first cover for Eternal Sunshine shows Grande donning striking red gloves that cover her face.
In two other covers, she wears a red turtleneck mini dress from Theory, complete with red tights and coordinating Manolo Blahnik Mary Jane pumps.
The singer’s promo looks are also on-brand. For the interview with Sang, she wore an archive 2006 Prada red mini-dress, with matching tights and black heels. She’s carried a striking red cashmere coat from The Row, and wore a similar leather coat while posing with her photographer friend Diggzy, proving that she has the album in mind even while off-duty.
The Album’s Inspiration
Grande told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that she first saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind when she was very young. “I'm a massive Jim Carrey fan,” she said. “My first screen name was JimCarreyFan42... It's always been a favorite of mine.”
The movie follows Jim Carrey as Joel Barish, who finds out that his ex-girlfriend Clementine (Winslet) had the memories of their relationship erased from her brain. Heartbroken, he decides to undergo the same procedure.
The singer teased a similar storyline in the trailer of her new music video for “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love),” which sees her signing surgery consent forms with the name “Peaches.”
In the March 7 interview, Grande confirmed that Eternal Sunshine contains lyrical elements of the film’s themes. “I think the movie is so beloved because so many people can relate to knowing that something isn't right, but loving so much, and wanting to stay, and wanting to figure it out,” she said. “I think it kind of fell into place that these songs had little tidbits of that theme. I just felt really inspired by it.”
Given her 2023 divorce from Dalton Gomez, her new relationship with Wicked co-star Ethan Slater, and the number of visual cues taken from the movie, it seems like Eternal Sunshine the album could revisit some of Grande’s most significant memories before she (metaphorically) wipes the slate clean and allows herself to move forward.
