Ariana Grande has a message for her critics on the remix of Charli XCX’s song “Sympathy Is a Knife.”
“Sympathy Is a Knife” first appeared on Charli XCX’s album Brat and unpacks the British pop star’s deepest insecurities; the new version of the song featuring Grande, 31, appeared on Charli’s remix album Brat and it’s completely different but also still Brat, which was released on Friday, October 11.
In her verse, Grande sings, “It’s a knife when you know they’re counting on your mistakes / It’s a knife when you’re so pretty, they think it must be fake / It’s a knife when they dissect your body on the front page / It’s a knife when they won’t believe you, why should you explain?”
In the same verse, she also sings, “It’s a knife when the mean fans hate the nice fans / When somebody says, ‘Ari, I think you’ve totally changed.’”
Grande has fielded plenty of questions about her appearance, recently denying rumors that she has had plastic surgery while participating in Vanity Fair’s Lie Detector Test series last month. Grande’s Wicked costar Cynthia Erivo asked whether or not the pop star has had a boob job or a nose job, to which she replied “no” to both.
“I’ve had fillers in various places and Botox, but I stopped, like, four years ago. And that is the extent,” Grande said on the September 30 episode, though she noted that she fully supports anyone else who chooses to alter their appearance. In September 2023, the “Eternal Sunshine” singer also spoke candidly about “getting a ton of lip filler over the years and Botox.”
She told Vogue at the time, “I, over the years, used makeup as a disguise or as something to hide behind. That can be so beautiful at times, and I still do have love for it and appreciation for it.”
Plastic surgery speculations aren’t the only rumors Grande has had to field in the past year, as her relationship with Ethan Slater received a significant amount of negative attention. News of their relationship went public in July 2023, the same month Us Weekly confirmed Grande had split from Dalton Gomez after two years of marriage. Her divorce was finalized in October 2023. Not too long after, Slater, 32, filed to divorce his ex-wife, Lilly Jay, which was finalized on September 12.
At the time, rumors began to circulate that Grande and Slater had ended their respective relationships due to their on-set romance while filming Wicked, in theaters on November 22. (A source exclusively told Us in August 2023 that there was no overlap between the relationships.)
“The most disappointing part was to see so many people believe the worst of it,” Grande told Vanity Fair on September 30. “That was definitely a tough ride.”
Despite the criticism, Grande added that she wouldn’t let the rumors tarnish her happiness.
“Honestly, it’s taken me a lot of hard work to be able to last this long and to heal certain parts of my relationship to fame and to what I do because of these tabloids that have been trying to destroy me since I was 19 years old,” she said. “But you know what? I’m 31 years old and I’m not a perfect person, but I am definitely deeply good, and I’m proud of who I’m becoming.”
Grande, for her part, released her album Eternal Sunshine in March. In a February interview on “The Zach Sang Show,” Grande shared that she was “nervous” to release new music amidst her relationship drama. (The album features songs that seemingly reference her relationships to Slater and Gomez.)
“I’m so nervous, because pieces of it touch on things that are real and then pieces of it are also just, like, part of the concept,” she shared. “So, what is that separation?”
In June, a source exclusively shared with Us that Grande was her “authentic self with Ethan” and feels “finally fulfilled in a relationship,” noting, “Her family trusts [Ethan] because he’s caring and a gentleman.”
