Breakup rumors about Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater began during the Wicked: For Good press run, fueled by TikTok and blog theories. Slater attended Grande’s December Saturday Night Live hosting, and Grande later congratulated him in a March Instagram Story for Marcel in the Night, an Off Broadway play he co-wrote and starred in. Grande’s new lead single “Hate That I Made You Love Me” is her first music as herself since early 2025’s Eternal Sunshine deluxe add-ons. The track uses a time-tested hit formula but is among her weakest lead singles, with vocal and beat delivery that feels like a snooze. The song can be read as a couple’s spat, a villain anthem, or a diss aimed at parasocial observers, with the third interpretation fitting her prior contempt in “Yes And?” from 2024. “Love Me” is framed as a defensive diss track for fans, and its bridge is described as captivating, including lines about holding projections and women enduring.
"Grande now appears to address it all in " Hate That I Made You Love Me," the glum sigh of a lead single from her forthcoming eighth album, Petal, and first new music as herself since Eternal Sunshine's parade of deluxe add-ons ended in early 2025."
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