Ariana Grande isn't holding back anymore.
The pop superstar just pulled back the curtain on Petal, her highly anticipated eighth studio album dropping July 31, 2026 via Republic Records - and the word she used to describe it might surprise you: "feral."
In a now-viral Instagram video, Grande gathered her team at Republic Records - the same room where she once cried presenting Eternal Sunshine - and simply said: "Surprise." Then she described the record as coming from "a place where I have been maybe too shy or polite to tap into before." Her words? "This kind of just feels like - f** it."*
That rawness is the whole point.
Grande says Petal is about "breaking up with all different kinds of negative attachments" - from inner voices to external pressures - things that no longer serve her. She described the album as "something that is full of life, growing through the cracks of something cold and hard and challenging."
The lead single, "Hate That I Made You Love Me", drops May 29 and was co-produced by longtime collaborators Max Martin and Ilya Salmanzadeh. Grande called it "one of my favorite songs I'll ever write." The 12-track album will release mid-tour - her Eternal Sunshine Tour kicks off June 8 in Oakland, CA, and what may be her final major tour run wraps September 1 in London.
For fans of Grande's spiritual journey - she was raised Catholic before exploring Kabbalah - the album's themes of shedding what no longer serves you echo something deeply universal: the courage to let go, grow, and bloom through hardship. As she put it herself, "I am a flower that continues to grow with new petals."
Petal arrives July 31. Pre-orders are available now.
