Ariana Grande released the deluxe version of her 2024 album, Eternal Sunshine, Friday, along with a nearly 30-minute short film, Brighter Days Ahead.
Set to a backdrop of the album’s songs, the short film picks up 70 years after the Wicked star’s “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” music video. In that 2024 music video, she plays Peaches, a heartbroken young woman visiting a clinic named Brighter Days Inc. to have the memories of her lost love (played by Evan Peters) wiped from her mind.
In Brighter Days Ahead, Grande is now an elderly woman, visiting the same clinic to try its new procedure, memory restoration. The service comes at a price, according to a release: The relived memories are permanently erased after viewing. Throughout the short film, released Friday morning, Grande’s Peaches looks back at her life through clips of memories, including what appear to be real childhood home videos of the chart-topping pop star.
Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead features six new tracks from the Oscar-nominated, Grammy Award-winning artist. The original album, released a year ago, earned the singer her sixth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 and had two songs [“Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)”] hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart.
The Wicked star has had a whirlwind year since the release of Eternal Sunshine. She earned her first Oscar nomination for her role of Glinda in the adaptation of the hit stage musical; the film’s second part, Wicked: For Good, is slated to be released later this year. If the stage musical is anything to go by, it’s likely to be much heavier than the first film. “I’m still recovering,” Grande previously told The Hollywood Reporter of working on the second film.
Grande and co-star Cynthia Erivo also opened the 2025 Academy Awards. The “Thank U, Next” singer kicked the performance off with her rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Erivo then sang “Home” from The Wiz. The pair then performed a section of Wicked’s “Defying Gravity.”
Special fan screenings of Brighter Days Ahead are being held on Sunday (March 30) in L.A., New York, Chicago and Grande’s hometown of Boca Raton, Florida. Watch the short film below.
Source: Hollywoodreporter
