In 2023, Ariana went through one of the most explosive and highly viral scandals and mass hate trains in recent pop culture. A cheating rumor that sparked a tidal wave of mass online hate, especially from millennial women who touted themselves as "girl's girl" supporters. Lots of viral tiktoks, X posts, basically all social media platform's viral posts with lots of engagement from people (usually negative towards Ariana) surged. Meanwhile Ethan Slater got little to no hate in the situation. Just Spongebob Memes mostly. The media and every major news outlet also tore her apart and she also received mass online viral hate for her appearance. With many viral posts being centered around body-shaming her.  

 

However, Ariana low-key smashed in 2024. Eternal Sunshine debuted at #1 with 227,000 in it's first week. A larger album debut opening than her previous album Positions. It also is her only album ever to spend 3 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 200 (Thank U, Next and Positions could not even do this.) It also became Ariana's fastest album ever to surpass 4 billion streams on Spotify.

 

we can't be friends (wait for your love) and yes, and? both were #1 hits on the Billboard hot 100. She only had one #1 hit with Positions and matched Thank U, Next's number of #1s. 
 

She also starred in the smash hit movie Wicked and earned her first ever Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Wicked also pulled in 114 million in it's North America opening weekend, grossed 756 million worldwide and was the 5th highest grossing film at the box office worldwide in 2024.

 

Did Ariana pull off one of the best comebacks from a cancellation/scandal in modern pop history?

 

Edited August 23, 2025Aug 23 by Lethal

While Ariana as a fixture in the pop charts gained a comeback, I think she's transitioned officially into one of those 5 in a decade celebrities that'll forever be in the mouths of the general public that I think regardless of what she did bar being a complete bigot would've kept her firmly A-list.

 

Its not like she was commercially hurting or that there were signs of her being such, positions despite being seen in a bad light by a large part of the audience during its release bc it wasn't pop was an absolute smash that was hurt by Election season, POV was smashing harder than 34+35 but lacked a lot of label support. While the media hate train was real and strong, there were absolutely no signs of her commercially hurting or losing her star power. If anything, the scandal bolstered her celebrity even further. 

 

Wicked essentially erased all of the tabloid fodder to the back, she's too good at what she does and gifted by God himself to completely flop like that.

I thought about donutgate when reading the title 

She's always winning and has an amazing discography streak 

7 minutes ago, Before the Dawn said:

I thought about donutgate when reading the title 

Same  that incident delayed her A-list status for a few years imo

9 minutes ago, Before the Dawn said:

I thought about donutgate when reading the title 

same lol

White conservative women in their 30s are still hating on her on social media for the Ethan thing. 

 

Anyways, when ES dropped I was expecting much less commercially, I thought she wasn't going to match Positions' numbers (simply because that came after TUN), not for her to outdo them. I think we can't be friends is what changed everything, the song and the music video were just too good.

 

Honestly Ariana is one of the few pop girls whose private life has never overshadowed her job. She has had a lot of high profile relationships for one reason or another, but even when she was the topic of the moment her music and work managed to be the focus. Even with TUN, she name dropped her exes, it became a trend on social media and people were shocked but it's not like they were hyper fixated on her exes. She and the album were always the focus.

12 minutes ago, ariananext said:

White conservative women in their 30s are still hating on her on social media for the Ethan thing. 

 

Anyways, when ES dropped I was expecting much less commercially, I thought she wasn't going to match Positions' numbers (simply because that came after TUN), not for her to outdo them. I think we can't be friends is what changed everything, the song and the music video were just too good.

 

Honestly Ariana is one of the few pop girls whose private life has never overshadowed her job. She has had a lot of high profile relationships for one reason or another, but even when she was the topic of the moment her music and work managed to be the focus. Even with TUN, she name dropped her exes, it became a trend on social media and people were shocked but it's not like they were hyper fixated on her exes. She and the album were always the focus.

I agree with this 100%. No matter what scandal or "cancellation" she goes through, she still smashes and prevails in the end. 
 

Honestly it's simply because of her raw and undeniable voice and talent. Even the biggest OTH of hers can't drag her for her vocal abilities. Her strong talent will always save her in the end and that's a fact.  

Edited August 23, 2025Aug 23 by Lethal

No, only because there was no comeback to come back from. It was some tabloid fodder, but none of her fans gaf and the older GP didn't know about it and the younger GP also didn't gaf about it. A pop star can get away with basically murder and still smash as long as they're seen as "cool". Ariana was never not seen as cool. Fantasize was leaked and smashing over TikTok during that time and if anything, she was seen as even cooler and with a few jokes made at her expense 

 

Gaga needed a comeback after Artpop because she was seen as a strung out crazy girl (in a freak weird way, not a cool party girl way). Katy needed (but didn't get) a comeback after Witness because she was seen as a washed up cringey middle aged pop artist that had nothing unique to do or say anymore. Etc etc 

 

Ariana had a minor scandal, but her star power and commercial power never even slightly waned, so there was nothing to comeback from 

yeah I don't think her „scandals" were that scandalous tbh… might have been a hot topic in the atrl/stan twitter bubble, but outside? who cares about tabloids nowadays?

She has always been perceived as a cool girl. When she debuted, she was branded as the new pretty and cool pop star on the scene (an image she pretty much kept the whole decade, until younger popstars like Dua, Billie and Olivia found success), which made it easy for those of us who were teenagers in the 10s to connect with her. After more than a decade, knowing what a kind and humble soul she is, there is pretty much nothing she could do to alienate her core fanbase. On the other side, she never lost that cool factor to the GP. Add to that her huge talent and she basically can almost do no wrong. Even if at one point she will slow down commercially, I believe she will always acclaim and success in any entertainment lane thanks to her incredible talent.

 

That's motha. You can neva bring down a bad ***** 

Yes. I'm glad she had a great comeback 

I am glad she released eternal sunshine and not something corny like other canceled artists in the past

 

Edited August 23, 2025Aug 23 by Trip

I thought this would be about DW.

the way she came back with a hit album, a classic smash hit and a blockbuster movie 

 

she's one of those artists whose fanbase luckily outweighs the negativity she receives online, which is still a lot

3 hours ago, Lethal said:

I agree with this 100%. No matter what scandal or "cancellation" she goes through, she still smashes and prevails in the end. 
 

Honestly it's simply because of her raw and undeniable voice and talent. Even the biggest OTH of hers can't drag her for her vocal abilities. Her strong talent will always save her in the end and that's a fact.  

True, she's so inoffensive, does her job and minds her business. Her haters look dumb as hell most of the time. 

Some above posters are significantly downplaying how bad she was getting it  

 

 

Her career is cemented to the ground now no one taking her crown away

11 minutes ago, Busty Woman said:

Some above posters are significantly downplaying how bad she was getting it  

 

 

like exactly 

my girl had like 3 viral hate tiktoks daily, and when i say viral i mean VIRAL. even people in my inner circle who don't care about Ariana, knew about the homewrecking scandal and kept asking me about it. 

17 minutes ago, honeymoonave said:

like exactly 

my girl had like 3 viral hate tiktoks daily, and when i say viral i mean VIRAL. even people in my inner circle who don't care about Ariana, knew about the homewrecking scandal and kept asking me about it. 

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdXVPdfv/ And this song just made it worse  

People just mostly care about the music at the end of the day and she delivered