LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: For as long as Ariana Grande has been in the public eye, the petite powerhouse has faced scrutiny about her body. There was a chorus of voices in 2023 saying she was too thin while she was working on the film "Wicked." She addressed it on TikTok.
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ARIANA GRANDE: I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people's bodies, no matter what.
FADEL: Now, after the release of Grande's new music video for her single "Petal," that scrutiny is back, and it's loud. This week, her team announced she's taking a step back from public life after her Eternal Sunshine tour. Grande interrupted her show in Chicago on Monday to read a statement about this to her fans.
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GRANDE: It is something that I had decided. It's a plan that I had quietly made a long time ago, and it's a decision that was made from a thoughtful and empowered place.
FADEL: To talk about this, we're joined by music journalist Tomas Mier, who profiled Grande for Vogue Japan earlier this year. Welcome to the program.
TOMAS MIER: Thank you for having me.
FADEL: Tomas, I wonder what you make of this decision and whether it's a coincidence that there was a sort of public outcry over her weight, and then this announcement that she's stepping away from public life for a while.
MIER: I feel like this announcement came at an interesting time. She's at the peak of an album release that dropped over the weekend. She's on this massive tour across the world. So it comes at a really high moment in her career if we're talking about ticket sales, if we're talking about music streams. But also at a time when people are talking about her so much, just generally about her body, about how she looks. And I think it's something that she's probably had to think about for quite some time. And I think we really got some clarity with that statement in Chicago.
FADEL: She's been in the public eye since she was so young, and she faces such public scrutiny because fans love their celebrities, right? I mean, how much of that contributed, do you think, to her decision to say, you know what? I need a break.
MIER: There's two sides of the story. There's the public excitement about these shows, about her being back in the limelight. But there's also this other side that's commenting about how she looks, what she's doing and how that presents. And I think it's a combination of all of that. You know, I think it comes down to how she's feeling internally, and if stepping away means she'll be able to focus on herself, I think that might be the way to go.
FADEL: Do you think it's fair that the public scrutinizes a person's weight, health, body, these sensitive issues because they are public figures?
MIER: I think that sometimes we lose sight of the human behind the celebrity, and we see these celebrities as commodified objects, frankly, that we use to comment on our own lives sometimes. And I think we have gotten a bit too comfortable with talking about people's bodies in a way that is really grotesque. I think online there's very little that stops us from saying something crazy because there might not be a repercussion, and it's not something we would say to their face.
FADEL: Did it surprise you as somebody who spoke to her and you heard this excitement she had for this tour, that she's made this decision now?
MIER: I spoke to her last December for a profile that came out in January, and so much can change in eight months. I do think that that excitement that she had about the tour - you're still seeing it on stage. I was watching videos of her performance yesterday, and I went to the opening night of the tour. And you can tell that this is something that she genuinely enjoys. And she feeds off the energy of her fans, and I think that that physical interaction means so much more than the noise that might be coming from online.
FADEL: That was music journalist Tomas Mier, who profiled Ariana Grande for Vogue Japan earlier this year. Thank you so much for speaking with us and for your time.
MIER: Thank you for having me.
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