Ariana Grande, the O2, review: A powerful show of strength amid adversity

Eleanor HallsSun, August 16, 2026 at 12:23 AM UTC

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Grande will be taking a ‘step back’ from public life after her London shows - Julian Dakdouk

It’s not easy to assign a star rating to a superstar who appears so unwell. For the last few months, alarm over the plummeting weight of former Disney actress turned three-time Grammy-winner Ariana Grande, currently touring her acclaimed 2024 album Eternal Sunshine, has turned to fear.

Fans first expressed concern ahead of the 2024 press tour for Wicked, when Grande — Glinda the Good Witch — looked particularly fragile. She urged them to be “gentler” when commenting on her body, which, she reassured, was actually “healthier” than it had been previously. But by the 2025 press tour for Wicked’s second instalment, online discourse had grown louder and more fractious, divided between those who felt passing judgement on someone else’s body was never acceptable, and those who felt keeping silent was socially irresponsible — Ozempic has brought a return of aspirational thinness in culture, and eating disorders among young people are rising.

Two weeks ago, Grande responded a second time, although obliquely, through a seven-minute music video for Petal, from her haunting new RnB album of the same name.The lyrics, about a sweet ingenue driven to violent madness trying to impress judgemental Hollywood suits, who eventually tell her they want the ‘old you back’, leave little doubt as to their message.

Yet if the video was intended to hush her critics, it had the opposite effect, with Grande looking so slight it prompted the most fervent debate about her health yet, and outrage that her team signed off on the video at all. Last week, she announced that, after finishing her 10 sold-out nights here in London, she would be taking an extended “step back” from public life. Her team later claimed the decision was not reactive, but it’s a relief nonetheless.

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Grande gives the air of a 1950s actress - Katia Temkin

Considering the tenor of the current conversation around Grande, it felt surreal this evening to watch the 33-year-old have the time of her life performing the upbeat club anthems of Eternal Sunshine, which she wrote following her divorce from real estate director Dalton Gomez and is themed around the nature of memory. Punctually arriving on stage in black lingerie within an elaborate set of a roofless house – a musician performing in every room – she opens with her silky number-one hit Yes and immediately stuns with the power, clarity and agility of those phenomenal vocals that have made her name.

What follows is a two-hour cosmic journey through Grande’s own psychological universe, complete with mesmerising dance routines and spectacular staging including twinkling star canopies, mighty lightning and thunder, and a dazzling meadow that looked straight out of Wicked. In fact, much of Oscar-nominated Grande’s flawless performance this evening felt indebted to Hollywood, from the sci-fi film vignettes projected on the giant screens between songs to a clip of The Wizard of Oz and the credits that rolled after she finally disappeared into a UFO. Even Grande’s speaking voice – breathy, doll-like, almost excessively polite – gives her the air of a 1950s actress.

Throughout, her genuine affection for Britain comes through, which makes this set of final shows all the more moving. She affects a mock English accent to welcome us (the same one she uses for the amusing Harry Potter impressions she has posted to Instagram) and performs a song she wrote about a pub in Hampstead.

Fans pose before the opening night of the London leg of the tour - Reuters

Of course she was tied to this country in the most horrifying way when her Manchester arena show was bombed by terrorists in 2017, leaving 22 people dead and Grande with severe PTSD (which is why her shows’ security now uniquely demands that fans’ bags be fully transparent).

She displayed admirable courage by coming back to Manchester to perform a charity gig just one month later — a resilience which will hopefully carry her through whatever may be troubling her now. On Petal, which she also performed tonight, Grande uses the imagery of the lotus flower, known to bloom in the mud, as a metaphor for strength. No doubt her eventual return will see her stronger than ever.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”