Entertainment

Ariana Grande's New Song 'The Light Is Coming' Will Leave You So Excited For Her New Album

by Sophy Ziss
Rich Polk/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

It's Ariana Grande's world, and everyone else is just living in it. Ariana Grande's new song "The Light Is Coming" is here, and it's the perfect way to kick off your best summer yet. In the last few weeks, the singer announced her next collaboration with Nicki Minaj, went public with her relationship with comedian Pete Davidson, and dropped a brand-new track during her set at Los Angeles' Wango Tango event. You go, girl!

Rolling Stone reported that Grande provided her own intro for the new track "The Light Is Coming" at the end of her Wango Tango Set. She had previously revealed to a Twitter fan that she'd be playing something new, but that wasn't confirmed until she announced it on stage:

"So, I'm putting out a new album in August, and I wanted to tell you the pre-order goes up this month on [June 20]. And on [June 20] you get a new song called 'The Light Is Coming' which features my big sister Nicki Minaj, and we wanted to give you a little preview of it tonight."

After this, she paused, reportedly adding, "I'm so nervous. Let's go!" before launching into the song.

Watch video of Ariana Grande performing her new single here:

Grande had previously teased the song on Twitter. On May 27, the singer posted a 27-second video of herself listening to the single. Fans can mostly hear Minaj rapping over a beat, with Grande's hook, "The light is coming, to give back everything the darkness stole" coming in at the end. It may be a kiss-off to her former relationship with rapper Mac Miller, or a reference to struggling to come to terms with the 2017 Manchester bombing of her show. It might also just be a fire new track. Of course, it could be all of these things — and, presumably, more.

"The Light Is Coming" will likely serve as the second single from her forthcoming album Sweetener. Grande spoke to TIME magazine about writing Sweetener in the months since the Manchester attack. Rolling Stone referred to it as a "healing process" for the singer, and she was candid about the experience for TIME:

"I was never as involved [before Sweetener]. I felt more inclined to tap into my feelings because I was spending more time with them. I was talking about them more. I was in therapy more."

It's thought that Sweetener will be the artist's most intense and most personal album yet as a result. "The Light Is Coming" is only the second song she's released in advance of the album, with "No Tears Left To Cry" dropping in late April 2018. Her Wango Tango performance, notes Rolling Stone, is also her first full-length performance of the year. Grande previously made a cameo at Coachella, but the June 2 Wango Tango appearance was her first real set.

The singer, it seems is happy to be back too. After her performance, Grande got back on Twitter, writing, "Thank you, Wango Tango! As always, it's a pleasure and an honor." A few minutes later, she added "Thank you for all your love tonight, everybody!" and continued "I missed singing and seeing you all so very much." But, you know, she typed it in a more fun way. Grande spent hours quote-tweeting and responding to fans, revealing she'd been taking care of her voice even more than usual and was so nervous ahead of her set, she'd literally forgotten to eat.

With just a few weeks until the worldwide release of Sweetener, it's safe to assume Grande is going to spend the next few months out and about and touring globally. The light is coming, and it looks like Ariana Grande's best summer yet.