With 12 performances remaining on her tour, Ariana Grande teased a Live Sweetener album to come sooner than fans expected. She gave Twitter the update hours before her Jacksonville, Florida show, revealing that she's been working on its production while on the road. As if she wasn't already busy enough.
Grande tweeted: "love u hello! been prepping these vocals for the live album/listening to first pass mixes & am so excited. vocal producing everything myself, johnny’s been producing all the band parts! deadline is soon so jus saying hello and love u and miss u. see u tonight, jacksonville!"
If producing an album, constantly traveling, and performing for thousands of people for weeks at a time sounds like a lot of work, that's because it is. But it shouldn't come as a surprise that she's busting out the album so quickly, because Grande's made it clear that her fans come first, and her connection to them is special.
"i wish i had the words to express how fully and completely i love y’all," she tweeted on Nov. 25. "i’ll never get over it. fully prepared to cry every show for the remainder of tour. i’ve accepted it. f*ck it. love u too much. it’s too moving and special."
She, unfortunately, fell ill in November and was forced to cancel her Nov. 17 show in Lexington, Kentucky. She sounded congested and in pain in her video announcement to her fans, but she still persisted and performed in Atlanta on Nov. 19. "y’all make me so happy tf," she tweeted the day of her return. "love u. see u tonight."
Her hit album thank u, next was nominated for the 2019 American Music Award for Favorite Pop Album and two Grammy Awards: Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. "thank u for acknowledging this music my beautiful best friends and i created in just a few weeks together," she tweeted in response to the Grammys news. "the acknowledgement is truly enough on its own for me and my heart. pls allow me to bring all of my friends who made this w me so they can make sure my heart is beating."
There's no official release date for the live album, but if thank u, next was made in just a few weeks, Sweetener could be coming sooner rather than later. Her final tour performance takes place on Dec. 22, which could give her a few days to tie up loose ends and release it just in time for Christmas. There could, literally, be no sweeter gift.
