How Ariana Grande dealt with anxiety, depression, grief by throwing herself into her music

After a terrorist attack at one of her concerts and the death of an ex-boyfriend, the Wicked star released two albums in quick succession

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Ariana Grande at the Los Angeles premiere of Wicked in 2024. After a terrorist attack at one of her concerts in 2017 and the death of an ex-boyfriend in 2018, the singer says music helped save her life. Photo: FilmMagic

Published: 1:45pm, 6 Feb 2025Updated: 11:15am, 7 Feb 2025

Ariana Grande is opening up on the darkest time of her life, and how making music led her through it.

On the latest episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, the Oscar-nominated Wicked star said releasing two albums in less than six months was instrumental in helping her deal with grief, depression, anxiety and PTSD.

Grande’s album Sweetener was released in August 2018 and marked her first new music following the 2017 terrorist attack at her concert in Manchester, England. The suicide bombing left 22 people dead and wounded hundreds of others.

In February 2019, she followed that up with her chart-topper Thank U, Next, mere months after the overdose death of her ex-boyfriend Mac Miller and the end of her engagement to SNL funnyman Pete Davidson.

Messages and tributes in Manchester in solidarity with those killed and injured in the 2017 terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena. Photo: AFP

Mac Miller and Grande at an Oscars party in 2018 in Los Angeles, California, not long before the rapper’s death. Photo: GC Images

“I think I needed to be doing that,” she said of throwing herself into that music. “I was doing so much therapy, and I was dealing with PTSD and all different kinds of grief and depression, and anxiety.