Ariana Grande Celebrates One Year of Eternal Sunshine With Brighter Days Ahead

A year on from her punching seventh studio album Eternal Sunshine, Ariana Grande remains committed to tugging at our heartstrings. This time, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and Oscar-nominated actress spoils fans with a short film, Eternal Sunshine: Brighter Days Ahead, accompanying her highly anticipated deluxe album.

Credit: Katia Temkin

The 19-track album, including six additional tracks, stories a turbulent journey. Those grappling themes of love and longing, lust and legacy shine at the forefront of this extended body of work – only this time round, Grande is grittier. The, or her, emotions are weightier, perhaps in some ways, angrier and more confronting. She takes listeners that much deeper into the rabbit hole of her mind, where now the whiplash caused by those twists and turns doesn’t appear to hurt anymore – but that doesn’t mean the darkness doesn’t persist. 

Notorious for wearing her heart on her sleeve, she leaves a greater imprint on that garment further with a 26-minute short film. For this, she collaborates with long-term collaborator and friend Christian Breslauer to write and direct this haunting fairytale...or really, reality. The horror-esque (no surprise to her long-term fans) presentation visualises the album featuring an elderly woman named Peaches presented with the opportunity to restore some of her memory at Brighter Days Inc. The experience is wholly cathartic, a sombre mix of heartwarming and heart-wrenching because once relived, it can never be revisited.

What follows is a deep, nostalgic dive into her past - a history spanning 70 years - from child to popstar, with adoring fans singing along with her and performing her top hits. Among them is new track Dandelion, which transitions wistfully into the twinkly-sounding yet lyrically confronting Twilight Zone, and then Supernatural, an unsung fan favourite from the original. This is where Grande shines in all her loop-machine glory, a testament to her growth as a vocal producer – something her peers have greatly praised her for. She wades through murky, shallow water, in scenes reminiscent of her One Last Time days, in the hopes of finding a glimmer of hope – and does: a pink-diamond Swarovski necklace, which she rushes to hang around her neck in an attempt to reclaim what little she has left of what once was fond memories.

Ed Butera, the singer’s father, takes centre stage in the second half of the short film as the founder of Brighter Days Inc., embodying a Frankenstein-esque role as he works to piece together his beloved daughter (Peaches). With the twitch of a few fingers, her consequent awakening and a beautiful end scene with the two duetting over the sombre chords of new track Hampstead, the screen fades out to black. Instead, fans are left to mourn 

Credit: Katia Temkin

Spoiler alert: sadly, there’s no ‘happy ending’ for Peaches in Brighter Days Ahead. “I would rather feel everything than nothing,” Grande sings on Hampstead, providing the perfect finality to a story that the singer seems happy to close the door on. Behind it lay dark and complex yet joyful memories, but none are lost in vain, as ahead waits, well, brighter days. 

Watch brighter days ahead HERE.  Listen to eternal sunshine deluxe: brighter days ahead HERE.