Student Blog: The Wicked Witch of The West: Music's Role in Political Strife

Ariana Grande's year of success should go down in history books. The initial success of Eternal Sunshine followed by the international raving of Wicked: Part One has paved the road between pop and musical theater, creating a bond that has exposed the joy of theater to so many. Through the wickedly popular press tour of the film and the critically acclaimed album, Grande's success this past year has created a type of bond between musical theater fans and pop music lovers- resulting in a box office hit and a Grammy nomination. This type of connection created positive and negative publicity for Grande, through heavy public responses to her character and controversy of her dating life. Through it all, however, Grande remained a rock for the theater lovers seeing representation in the pop culture world.

Grande's Eternal Sunshine: Brighter Days Ahead released Friday, including four new tracks, and extended song, and a 30-minute short film to accompany the theme of her album. Inspired from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the album, film, and music videos explore the societal pedestal Grande has been seated on, and how the critiques on her love life affect any sort of relationship- her 2023 divorce with Dalton Gomez drew publicity, but her new tracks deter from the accusations of cheating she recieved, and even flip the accusations onto him. Her budding relationship with 2018 Tony Award winner Ethan Slater has also brought questions of character to the public, bringing the Broadway actor into a cheating-induced ceasefire.

So: what does this mean for us?

As we see more prevalence of musical theater in pop culture, good comes with the bad. The Kennedy Center's recent takeover by President Trump this past February has caused news to emerge almost weekly about the Kennedy Center's rebrand including (but not limited to) the cancellation of shows, withdrawal from operas, and budget cuts.

The truth is that any publicity doesn't mean good publicity. We see our current political status depriving fine arts establishments from the jobs, joy, and help they offer to subscribers and consumers, with little to no assurance that a famed and historical theater will be able to bounce back from the current fall.

Grande's album shows us the importance of the future: not only does she explore literal time travel through vintage home videos and ol age makeup in her music videos and short film, but also through the music itself.

Music has the power to bring people together, and is being weaponized to draw people apart. The passion of performers is one thing that can stay constant, however, through thr hardships and strife.

Grande's perfectly-timed statement on the state of the performing arts world serves as a metaphor that eerily reflects that of Victor Hugo's in Les Misérables: that yes, the sun will come back out, and there are brighter days ahead.