Ariana Grande drops ‘eternal sunshine’ deluxe edition, short film

By Ian Gabriel Trinidad

Singer-songwriter and actress Ariana Grande on Friday released the highly-anticipated deluxe edition of eternal sunshine.

eternal sunshine: brighter days ahead features six new tracks, namely “twilight zone”, “warm”, “dandelion”, “past life”, and “Hampstead”, plus an extended version of “intro (end of the world)”.

Album focuses on relationships

Like its predecessor, the deluxe edition delves into Ariana’s relationships, particularly her divorce from Dalton Gomez in 2024, her eventual romance with her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater, and the public’s perception of the matter.

The deluxe release marks a year since the star’s album dominated the charts by debuting at number one on the United States Billboard 200 chart and the United Kingdom Albums Chart.

Its singles “yes, and?” and  “we can’t be friends (wait for your love)” both topped the Billboard Hot 100 and Global 200 charts, while “the boy is mine” debuted at number 16 on the Hot 100.

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Peaches makes a comeback

Grande also released an accompanying 26-minute short film directed by herself and Christian Breslauer.

Brighter Days Ahead picks up 70 years after the end of the music video for “we can’t be friends (wait for your love)” and was inspired by the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

The short film sees the pop star playing an elderly Peaches returning to Brighter Days Inc., where she got her memory wiped in the aforementioned music video.

However, instead of erasing her memory again, Peaches returns to relive her most precious memories for the last time, with each one being deleted after being relived.

The first memory, set to the music of “intro (end of the world)”, is a montage of Ariana’s childhood memories, featuring her parents Joan Grande and Edward Butera, her brother Frankie, and her maternal grandparents.

The second one shows a younger Peaches performing a stripped-down version of “eternal sunshine” and “dandelion”, the screens around her flashing shots of fans watching her perform.

The third memory takes viewers back to the wreckage of the house in the “we can’t be friends (wait for your love)” music video, with “twilight zone” and “supernatural” playing in the background. Peaches exits the house, revealing an equally devastated neighbourhood, and gets abducted by a UFO in a shot reminiscent of the album art of “better days ahead”.

The last one features her father putting Grande back together a la Frankenstein, the black-and-white scene turning to colour after her resurrection and ending in the two sharing a sweet movement while playing the piano.

The final shot of the short film shows Peaches, her last memory destroyed, smiling as the scene fades to black.

Before the film ends, a young Grande appears and says: “We should live each day as if it were the last day of our life.”

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