Ariana Grande has openly shared that her portrayal of Glinda in the highly anticipated Wicked films has been a profoundly healing experience for her as an artist. However, in a recent candid interview, the acclaimed pop star revealed that a significant factor in her rekindled passion for making music has also been her decision to sign with a new management team, moving on from her previous association with Scooter Braun.

In a New York Times profile published on November 5th, Grande spoke frankly about her past dissatisfaction with her music career prior to her casting in Wicked a few years ago. She specifically recalled a period where she believed she would never embark on another tour, citing the exhaustive nature of her 2019 Sweetener trek. "There was something broken about my relationship to pop music that was healed recently through the time away," she explained to the publication. She elaborated on feeling that her career had, at times, become overwhelming and perilous, stating, "I think it got away from me in a way I didn’t expect. There’s a thing that comes along with your dreams coming true that feels dangerous at times … Nothing prepares you for what comes with it. Until quite recently, it was really hard for me to navigate and I think it stripped a lot of joy out of this for me."

Despite her earlier reservations about her future in music, the Grammy-winning artist is now enthusiastically preparing to return to the road in 2026 for a smaller tour. This tour will support her 2024 Billboard 200-topping album, "Eternal Sunshine," an album she created after having previously thought she would never produce new music again. Grande has consistently stated that redirecting her focus towards acting, after years of primarily dedicating herself to her pop-star duties, was crucial for her well-being. Furthermore, during her discussion with the NYT, she subtly indicated that her previous professional collaborators had discouraged her from seeking a harmonious balance between her dual passions. "By the way, I have a different team now," she asserted on the topic, adding, "Said with love, but that was a piece."

This interview follows more than two years after Grande's departure from SB Projects, the company where Scooter Braun had managed her on and off since 2013. Her exit coincided with similar announcements from several other high-profile clients of Braun, including Demi Lovato and J Balvin. In June 2024, Scooter Braun himself confirmed his retirement from music management entirely. At that time, he expressed his ongoing support for all the notable artists who had once been part of his roster, which also featured prominent names like Justin Bieber and Tori Kelly. These sentiments were reiterated by Braun during an appearance on The Diary of a CEO podcast in June, where he remarked, "To see Justin move forward and succeed, to see Ariana with what’s happened with Wicked in this past year … Everybody that I’ve ever had a chance to work with, to see them go on and do great things on their own, it’s awesome."

Shortly after concluding her partnership with SB Projects, Ariana Grande signed with Brandon Creed’s company, Good World Management. A source informed Billboard at the time that Grande's primary desire was for "the focus to be her art and [Creed] puts her artistry and vision before anything else." Two years later, it appears that Grande has successfully achieved this artistic focus with her new team providing support. "I’ve never felt this connected to my art or inspired, and that’s just been such a tremendous gift," she told the NYT. "It’s like, oh, I don’t actually have to take on those things that were projected onto me. I can focus on my art, and that can be a separate entity. But I had to give myself the permission to think that."