Fans of Ariana Grande have discovered a disturbing secret message in her controversial new music video, Petal.
Grande, 33, sparked a media firestorm on Friday after releasing the clip, which showed her looking alarmingly gaunt and thin.
Amid fevered speculation about her appearance, the singer announced plans to retreat from the public eye once her current tour ends in order to avoid further scrutiny.
As shocked fans continued to analyze Grande’s music video over the weekend, a sickening comment about the Wicked star losing weight was discovered buried in one of the scenes.
In the clip, Grande portrays the character of Pepper, an aspiring starlet in the 1960s who constantly auditions for a group of old white men in a bid to become famous.
She’s repeatedly rejected by the panel, despite returning time and time again with different looks and styles in a bid to impress them.
Fans of Ariana Grande have discovered a disturbing secret message in her controversial new music video, Petal
Grande is urged to ‘lose a few lbs’ while being judged during an audition in the twisted video
At one point, the group of Old Hollywood bigwigs brand Grande ‘unmarketable’, ‘unattractive’, and ‘inauthentic,’ before accusing her of having a personality disorder.
‘We miss the old you,’ one tells her. ‘Maybe you could go out and find her and come back and give it another shot?’
While this scene is clear in the video, hawk-eyed fans noticed that one of the men scribbled down a note about Grande needing to lose more weight.
‘Boring on the eyes, a little homely!’ he wrote. ‘Couldn’t hurt to lose a few lbs.’
At the end of the video, Grande dismembers the men with a chainsaw before receiving a standing ovation from the other female auditionees.
The visual is intended to be a commentary on the scrutiny that Grande has faced throughout her career from both the public and the media, but the message has still divided fans in light of recent rumors around her health.
‘This just confirmed for me that she is not in fact okay,’ wrote one.
‘I just feel like you’re not very smart if you don’t understand the very obvious social commentary being spoon fed to you here,’ wrote another.
The singer, 33, looks incredibly gaunt in the video, which was directed by Christian Breslauer
The singer is also called ‘homely’ and ‘unattractive’ before being urged to lose more weight
The video is intended to be a commentary on the scrutiny that Grande has faced throughout her career from both the public and the media
‘Women deserve so much better than having to be told this kind of stuff,’ added a third.
Many others commented on her extremely slender figure, with one fan remarking that the star is now so thin that her ‘bones are popping out’ in the music video.
Grande has since confirmed that she’s retreating from the spotlight once her Eternal Sunshine tour wraps up on September 1 in a bid to avoid any further scrutiny.
‘Ariana will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour,’ her rep told Variety.
‘She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny.
‘This tour has been a beautiful experience for her. She loves her fans and has loved every minute of this tour so much.’
Grande released her eighth studio album, Petal, on Friday.
The project was preceded by the lead single ‘Hate That I Made You Love Me’, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Grande has since confirmed that she’s retreating from the spotlight once her Eternal Sunshine tour wraps up on September 1 in a bid to avoid any further scrutiny around her appearance
The singer released her eighth studio album, Petal, on Friday, which is expected to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard charts
The singer has addressed her weight multiple times over the years and has insisted that she’s healthy, despite the continued speculation around her shrinking frame.
‘There’s a comfortability that people have commenting on that that I think is really dangerous,’ she told YouTuber Sally in a 2024 interview.
‘I’ve been kind of doing this in front of the public and kind of been a specimen in a petri dish really since I was 16 or 17, so I have heard it all,’ she continued.
‘I’ve heard every version of it — of what’s wrong with me. And then you fix it, and then it’s wrong for different reasons. But that’s everything from — even just the simplest thing — your appearance, you know?’
She added, ‘I think in today’s society, there is a comfortability that we shouldn’t have at all — commenting on others’ looks, appearance, what they think is going on behind the scenes or health or how they present themselves.’
In a 2023 TikTok, Grande directly addressed concerns about her weight and explained that older photos of herself, where she wasn’t as thin, were actually taken during an unhealthy period in her life.
Grande is pictured in 2018, which she claims was an ‘unhealthy’ time for her
The Wicked star is pictured in 2020 (left) and in her Petal music video (right)
‘I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly and at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my healthy, but that in fact wasn’t my healthy,’ she explained.
‘I know I shouldn’t have to explain that, but I do feel like having an openness and some sort of vulnerability here will [mean] something good might come from it. Healthy can look different.’
Last December, conservative commentator Megyn Kelly shockingly accused Grande of being ‘anorexic’.
‘Take a look at Ariana Grande right now, of the music industry and now also as an actress starring in Wicked. Let’s check in on how Ariana, who was raised on television, on Nickelodeon… is doing,’ Kelly began.
‘She is very clearly anorexic. If she’s 90 pounds, it’s a lot. She looks like you could snap her in two with your fingers.’
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