Three-time GRAMMY Award winner Ariana Grande has wrapped her critically-acclaimed sold-out “The Eternal Sunshine Tour”. The final show took place last night at London’s The O2, bringing a triumphant close to her spectacular, sold-out 10-night residency in the capital.
Ariana Grande told fans: “I just wanted to say, ‘thank you so much’. This has been an extraordinary experience. Thank you for 10 beautiful London shows and for 41 incredible Eternal Sunshine tour shows. This has been one of the most beautiful extraordinary experiences of my life and I just wanted to express my gratitude without sobbing completely. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It has been so special. I’ll cherish this experience always. I have the best fans in the entire world and I always have. I love your outfits, I love your faces, I love seeing you. Thank you for all of your effort and continuing to make this so special. I have loved every minute of this with you all and I just wanted to make sure I express how grateful I am. Thank you and I love you so much.”
Promoted by Live Nation, “The Eternal Sunshine Tour”, sold over 630,000 tickets across 41 sold-out shows with an average of 15,000 fans attending each show.
The tour kicked off in London off the back of her latest album “petal” hitting No.1 on both the UK Official Albums Chart and US Billboard 200. Throughout the run, Grande kept fans on their toes with surprise first performances of songs from the new album across different nights including tracks like ‘freak’, ‘kiss me’, ‘bad thing (bunny hop)’, ‘like i do’, and ‘warning signs’.
The tour also became a powerful real-world extension of Grande’s r.e.m. beauty community. Ariana spotlighted her lip products throughout the run, while the Fembot Fatale palette worn on stage repeatedly sold out on r.e.m. beauty’s website. Social virality accelerated through on-stage glam touch-ups by makeup artist Michael Anthony and hairstylist Alyx Liu, alongside limited-edition merchandise and products offered through dedicated r.e.m. beauty pop-up experiences.
Across the 28-date US run, r.e.m. beauty pop-ups welcomed nearly 15,000 guests. In the UK, more than 20,000 visitors attended the brand’s 18-day residency pop-up. The brand also hosted more than 450 members of its influencer community in branded suites across 31 shows, generating more than 3,000 pieces of social content. Demand extended into Ulta Beauty retail channels, while r.e.m. beauty’s viral bear bag charm sold out within the tour’s first two cities and became one of its most in-demand merchandise items.
During the three Chicago dates, r.e.m. beauty became the first brand to debut Ulta Beauty’s new mobile point-of-sale system, creating a seamless shopping experience at the show. Chicago pop-up guests also received a first look at and samples of the brand’s newest launch, Treble Maker 3-in-1 Mascara. Beyond retail, the pop-ups featured interactive photo moments and makeup applications, turning the brand presence into a broader fan experience.
The brand’s social-first strategy followed Grande through every stage of the tour, giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at her glam through mid-show touch-ups, “get unready with me” videos, viral Harry Potter impersonations tied to blur butter lip balm and timely TikTok trends. Across Instagram and TikTok, tour-related r.e.m. beauty content drove more than 260 million video views.
Over the course of the tour, Grande’s The Brighter Days Ahead Foundation spotlighted and supported 30 organisations that provide protection, support and vital resources for vulnerable communities with a focus on protecting trans and LGBTQ+ rights, expanding access to mental health care, and emergency support funds.
Organisations supported in the UK are Micro Rainbow, Trans Solidarity Alliance, The Proud Trust, Save The Children UK, Choose Love and Consortium LGBT.
In North America, the Foundation teamed up with HeadCount and Apathy Is Boring to run voter engagement activations right at the show, helping fans register and get informed. They partnered with Backline to make sure Grande’s crew, band, and dancers had mental health and wellbeing support throughout the tour. The Foundation also hosted three volunteer events alongside the tour stops in Los Angeles, New York CIty and London, each held at a local organisation to connect partners and grantees to see the work firsthand.
Grande’s most critically-lauded tour to date earned five star reviews from The Times, Telegraph, Metro, Rolling Stone UK, Attitude, and The London Standard. In the U.S., Billboard called the show “an absolutely astonishing vocal showcase,” adding that “it was like the heavens touching Earth,” while Rolling Stone hailed it as “a triumphant return” wrapped in “nearly two hours of audiovisual spectacle” and USA Today declared the tour “a well-earned victory lap” and “a welcome homecoming.” Across the pond, critics were effusive in their praise with Metro describing “full body chills’ listening to Ariana’s live vocals in a 5 star review and The Times, matching those stars, described the show as “two relentless hours of impossible highs” from “one of pop’s most formidable vocalists”. Telegraph’s 5 star review raved that she “immediately stuns with the power, clarity and agility of those phenomenal vocals.” Following on, NME’s 5 star review goes on to hail Grande as a “pop conceptualist” praising the show’s themes blending “gold-plated bops with vibey deep cuts” as well as her “showstopping vocals”. BBC noted that there were, “vocal riffs so tremendously colossal they should be registered as the eighth wonder of the world.”
Each city extended the show beyond the arena through dedicated fan experiences, merchandise pop-ups and city-specific activations. During the New York mini-residency, Brooklyn was transformed for show week with branded subway elements, an r.e.m. beauty experience at the venue, a merchandise pop-up in SoHo and a merch truck outside the Brooklyn venue. London’s 10-night run at The O2 featured multiple activations including temporary tattoo stations, r.e.m. beauty touchpoints and merchandise experiences. Across the tour, separate week-of-show pop-ups gave fans opportunities to shop vinyl and merchandise and take part in photo booths, letter walls and other interactive moments.
Fan-created traditions quickly became part of the show itself. During the encore performance of “we can’t be friends (wait for your love),” crowds embraced a nightly “sit in silence” challenge; elsewhere in the second act, fans quieted the arena as Grande remixed and looped her own voice live. The tour’s themes of accepting the past rather than erasing it also came to life through fans’ fashion, with audiences arriving dressed as different eras and moments from Grande’s career.
The run also delivered a series of surprise on-stage moments, including Cynthia Erivo joining Grande in London for a reunion performance featuring “For Good” from Wicked and “Happy Days/Get Happy” and Ty Dolla $ign joining Grande in New York for “Safety Net.”
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