Ariana Grande’s new song addressing rumored controversies about her relationship with Ethan Slater has stirred mixed reactions and criticism, resulting in a significant loss of Instagram followers for the singer.
Ariana released her first solo song last year after a three-year hiatus. “Yes, and?” immediately topped the Global Spotify Chart with over 11 million streams on the day of its release, but it also amassed a significant amount of backlash.
The chart-topping song refers to the controversy surrounding the singer’s romance with her Wicked costar, Ethan Slater.
Amongst the most controversial lyrics, one verse states: “Your business is yours and mine is mine.
“Why do you care so much whose d**k I ride?”
Online music encyclopedia, Genius, has explained that the lyrics were likely a response to the negative reactions Ariana has received since she was first linked with Ethan last July.
While Ariana and Ethan were first rumored to be dating, the 30-year-old singer had just split with her now ex-husband, Dalton Gomez, while Ethan had also recently separated from his wife, Lilly Jay, who had just given birth to their first child.
In a March 2023 piece by the Daily Mail, an anonymous source mentioned that Ariana and Ethan were “all over each other” at Michelle Yeoh’s Oscars Party.
In July of the same year, People confirmed the castmates had begun a relationship, at which point, there was no confirmation that Ethan had divorced his then-wife.
As per Page Six, sources close to Ariana and the 31-year-old SpongeBob SquarePants musical star firmly denied speculation that they had cheated on their respective former partners and instead claimed that they only began seeing each other romantically once they were both single.
Nevertheless, the timing of their newly found romance has continuously been questioned, especially since Ethan and Ariana have been filming the musical adaptation of Wicked for the past three years.
Moreover, Lilly Jay publicly denounced Ariana, telling Page Six that she felt the singer was “not a girl’s girl.” She additionally told the Daily Mail, “I am focused on rebuilding a life for our son… This is what I am trying to do, and this is my only focus.”
Following a separate Page Six report that Ethan’s wife was “blindsided” by the actor’s relationship with Ariana, people online started labeling the 7 Rings hitmaker as a “homewrecker” and making fun of Ethan for his looks and past roles, particularly noting his physical resemblance to Ariana’s brother, Frankie Grande.
Ariana and Ethan’s romance has seemingly continued to grow, sparking further backlash from several internet users.
There is no confirmation of who Ariana is referring to in “Yes, and?”, but many people have been speculating that she was making a jab at all the adverse reactions around her romance with Ethan.
While some fans have argued that Ariana had done nothing wrong, the former Nickelodeon star was also met with disappointment for her controversial lyric choices.
On X (formerly known as Twitter), people’s reactions were divided as a person wrote: “Can we just cancel #ArianaGrande for being a homewrecker.”
Another individual commented: “It’s truly disgusting how people defend Ariana Grande. She wasn’t lied to by Ethan about being single. She knew about the wife and child, she spent time with them. You don’t blame the woman if she didn’t know. Ariana chose to be a piece of sh*t. They’re both rotten and selfish.”
Ariana subsequently lost hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers this month. According to the analytics site SocialBlade, the singer has lost a total of 369,630 followers on Instagram since the start of January.
The data suggests that the vast majority of people who unfollowed Ariana did so after her song “Yes, and?” was announced on January 7.
In the past, the songstress had already been accused of “ruining” relationships in favor of herself.
Back in 2014, Ariana and rapper Big Sean went public with their relationship just months after his engagement to the late Glee star, Naya Rivera, ended.
