Ariana Grande’s latest visual is less a music video than a compact horror film wrapped around the title track of her album Petal. Directed by Christian Breslauer, the seven-minute piece opens with a parental advisory and places Grande in the role of Pepper, a hopeful actress grinding through auditions. When a shadowy producer dismisses her as “inauthentic,” the narrative pivots into a homage to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, its violence framed as a grotesque performance of truth.
The imagery aligns with how Grande has described the album: “something that is full of life and growing through the cracks of something cold and hard and challenging.” She co-wrote and executive produced Petal with Ilya, the producer behind her 2014 hit “Problem.”
The video arrives during Grande’s first tour in nearly seven years, a run initially designed to support both Positions and last year’s Eternal Sunshine. Material from Petal is already weaving into the setlist, with the trek set to wrap up with a multi-night London residency. After that, Grande has a different kind of hunt to attend to: tracking down the hackers who have been leaking her unreleased music and private photos, with plans to sue.
