Ariana Fans Are Losing It Over 1 Lyrical Detail In "Hampstead"

Ariana Grande is letting the sun set on her Eternal Sunshine era, but not without giving the emotional album an appropriately revelatory and meaningful ending. A little over a year after the record’s release, Grande brought the saga to its true end by releasing the six deluxe edition tracks. As fans expected, the new closing song, “Hampstead,” is filled with details about the media frenzy surrounding her divorce from Dalton Gomez and highly publicized new relationship with Ethan Slater. And the final words carry an extra special meaning.

Just from its title, “Hampstead” was set up to be a major confession. It’s named after the London neighborhood Grande lived in while filming Wicked throughout 2023. Notably, it was during this stay when Grande divorced Gomez and began dating her co-star Slater. Because of how closely together the public learned of these two events, the timeline has been widely called into question.

Grande has been vocal in calling out the “disappointing” narrative around her love life at this time. “So many people believe the worst version of it,” Grande said in the fall of 2024, saying of Slater: “There couldn’t be a less accurate depiction of a human being than the one that the tabloids spread about him ... There is no one on this earth with a better heart, and that is something that no bullsh*t tabloid can rewrite in real life.”

On “Hampstead,” Grande once again takes out her frustration with the depiction of her love life. “Quite frankly, you’re still wrong about everything,” the singer coos, before laying out just how off-base the reports about her divorce and new romance have been.

You think you’ve read the book I’m still writing / I can’t imagine wanting so badly to be right / Guess I’m forever on your mind / I wonder why

While she takes aim at the press, the emotional track also seems to throw some barbs at Gomez, noting that her ex-husband means nothing more than “just some lines in some songs” to her now.

There’s also a very telling reference in the final chorus, where Grande sings: “I’d rather be seen and alive than dying by your point of view.” The line is an inversion of her 2020 hit “POV,” in which she sang, “I'd love to see me from your point of view.” The Positions track is believed to be about Gomez, whom Grande was dating at the time.

But it’s the final couple of words in “Hampstead” that hit the hardest. As the music fades into the lull of quiet chatter, Grande repeats the words, “I do, I do, I do, I do, I do.”

After a whole album examining her divorce, it seems like Grande is imbuing those words she once said at the altar with a new meaning going forward, while still holding on to at least one nice memory from her past.