Sweetener World Tour


The Sweetener World Tour was the fourth concert tour by American singer and actress Ariana Grande in support of her fourth and fifth studio albums, Sweetener and Thank U, Next. Comprising 101 shows, the tour visited North America and Europe. The tour was officially announced on October 25, 2018, and was led by Live Nation Entertainment. The tour began on March 18, 2019, in Albany, New York at the Times Union Center and concluded on December 22, 2019, in Inglewood, California at The Forum.
Designed based on the idea of a sphere, the tour was intended to feel abstract and "ethereal". Grande enlisted LeRoy Bennett as the creative director and production designer and Jason Baeri as the lighting director. The tour featured costumes from Versace and Michael Ngo, and a stage featuring a circular runway looping around a pit. The staging design was centred on an inflatable hemisphere for visual projections, and a large orb lowered during parts of the show.
The tour attained both critical and commercial success. It received positive reviews from critics, who complimented both the stage design and Grande's vocals. The Sweetener World Tour was attended by an audience of 1.3 million and grossed $146.6 million from 97 shows, surpassing her previous concert tour, the Dangerous Woman Tour, as her highest-grossing tour to date. In order to register new voters ahead of the 2020 United States presidential election, Grande also partnered with nonprofit voter registration group HeadCount for the tour, breaking its all-time voter registration record with 33,381 registrations and actions.
Multiple shows across the tour were recorded for the live album, K Bye for Now . It was released on December 23, 2019, following the final show of the tour in Inglewood, California on December 22, 2019.

Background

On May 6, 2018, Grande finally hinted at a tour via her official Twitter account, shortly after announcing the title for her upcoming album on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Three months later, she announced there were plans for a tour, stating that her team were "workin on it all now". Grande embarked to a promotional concert tour for Sweetener, The Sweetener Sessions, which began on August 20, 2018, in New York City and ended on September 4, 2018, in London, England. Tour passes were also made available via her official website shortly after. Grande announced the title of the tour as the "Sweetener World Tour" on October 24, 2018, announcing its North American dates a day later.
The first leg of the tour visited 40 cities across North America, beginning on March 18, 2019, in Albany and concluding on August 4, 2019, at Lollapalooza. Pre-sale for the tickets for the first leg of the tour took place between November 1 and November 3, 2018. On November 5, 2018, tickets were opened to the general public, and Grande announced Normani and Social House as her opening acts. On December 10, 2018, due to popular demand, second shows were added in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Brooklyn, New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, and Toronto. On January 14, 2019, the shows in Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Saint Paul, Denver and Salt Lake City were rescheduled and the shows in Omaha and Raleigh were cancelled due to Grande headlining the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 14 and April 21, 2019, and a new show was added in Las Vegas. On May 28, 2019, the shows in Tampa and Orlando were cancelled and rescheduled due to illness.
, 2019
On December 14, 2018, Grande announced the European dates for the tour. A special show was being planned in Manchester. The second leg of the tour visited 19 cities across Europe, beginning on August 17, 2019, in London and concluded on October 16, 2019, in London. Pre-sale for the tickets for the second leg of the tour took place between December 19 and December 21, 2018, for the United Kingdom, and between December 18 and December 20, 2018, for all other dates. On December 20, 2018, tickets were opened to the general public, and due to popular demand, additional shows were added in Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin. On December 21, 2018, tickets were opened to the general public in the United Kingdom, and due to popular demand, additional shows were added in London and Birmingham. On February 25, 2019, due to popular demand, additional shows were added in Hamburg and Dublin. On March 5, 2019, Grande announced that Ella Mai would be the opening act for the European leg of the tour. On June 11, 2019, due to popular demand, additional shows were added in London. On August 9, 2019, the first show in Hamburg and the show in Prague were rescheduled, and the show in Kraków was cancelled.
On June 20, 2019, Grande announced another North American leg of the tour. It visited 19 cities across the United States, including the rescheduled Tampa and Orlando shows, beginning on November 9, 2019, in Uniondale and concluding on December 22, 2019, in Inglewood. Pre-sale for the tickets for the third leg of the tour took place between June 26 and June 30, 2019. On July 1, 2019, tickets were opened to the general public. On July 11, 2019, due to popular and high demand, additional shows were added in San Francisco and Inglewood.
Grande announced she would be partnering with nonprofit voter registration group HeadCount, for registering new voters ahead of the 2020 presidential election in March via Instagram, telling fans to "use your voice and get your 'thank u, next gen' sticker." In July, it was reported that HeadCount registered twice as many voters during "Sweetener" as any other tour over the last three years, being the most successful single artist tour for voter registration HeadCount has seen since 2008. In December, it was announced, that the tour has broken the all-time record, with 33,381 voter registrations and actions.

Stage

The stage for the Sweetener World Tour was designed with the idea of a sphere combined with an "abstract" & "ethereal" aesthetic. The stage includes a circular runway which loops around the fan pit and connects to the stage on the other side, a projection screen with a hemisphere on the projection screen behind the stage and a large orb nicknamed "the moon" by fans and Grande herself which is lowered for a moment when Grande sings on a small stage in the middle of the pit. The moon and the projection screen with the hemisphere are both inflatable. It takes six to eight hours to set everything up. However, for Grande's set at Coachella, her team had 45 minutes to put everything together. Grande's creative director LeRoy Bennett said that the whole show is meant to feel like a play instead of a pop show: "Usually you are trying to appropriately match the energy of a song with action and accent to tell a story along with the music and lyrics, the language of this show was different in that we were striving to create static tableaus and grand gestures as an environment for her to play in front of, much like a unit set in a play."

Concert synopsis

The first part of the show starts with the lights dimming down and the projection screen shows and displays planets and a dusk sky with orange clouds. The planets come together and form in the middle of the ball sphere of the projection screen. After a minute of silence, Grande opens up the first part of the show singing “Raindrops ” then comes up from beneath the stage on an elevated platform and performs "God Is a Woman" with her dancers wearing a red latex outfit. After that, Grande welcomes the audience to the Sweetener World Tour and performs "Bad Idea" then transitions into "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" performing and walking around the stage that loops around the pit. After the song ends, Grande leaves for a costume change.
The second part of the show begins with the first interlude of the show featuring Grande as a child reciting a scene from the 2003 film,"Bruce Almighty". Grande then returns to the stage in a pink top, a pink jacket and matching bottoms to perform "R.E.M." displaying a dark gray color on the projection screen with falling water then transitions into a pink and purple color while Grande kneels down and sits on the edge of the stage while singing. She then performs a reworked version of "Be Alright" beginning with a short intro featuring a scene from the 1996 film, "The First Wives Club". Grande then performs "Sweetener" with dark colorful lighting effects which then transitions into "Successful". During the song, Grande took off her pink jacket and threw it into the pit. Next was "Side to Side" displaying and showing pink lighting effects walking and looping around the stage and pit then transitions into "Bloodline" displaying and showing blue light effects and shows Grande and her dancers running around the stage throwing jewelry necklaces into the audience and changing costumes. After a quick costume change, Grande then performs "7 Rings" displaying the car from the music video with her and her dancers wearing "7 Rings" jackets and silver holographic pants. The second part of the shows concludes her dancers throwing "7 Rings" dollars into the pit and they all gather by the car and go under the stage with Grande lying on the top of the car for another costume change.
The third part of the show starts with a second interlude of Grande singing a cover of Frank Ocean's song "Close to You" then walks on the stage wearing a purple top with matching bottoms and silver high-heel boots to perform a shortened version of “Love Me Harder" and walks half the stage displaying pink lighting effects. Once reaching the middle of the stage, she then performs "Breathin" and finishes looping the stage back to the main area displaying and showing dark blue light effects. After that, she sits down facing the pit and performs an orchestral version of "Needy" showing and displaying clouds on the projection screen. Next was "Fake Smile" displaying green and blue lighting effects and Grande putting up the middle finger in reference of the song. After was "Make Up" which displays pink, gold, blue and purple light effects. During the song, she took out some lip gloss from her top, applies it on her lips and then throws it to the pit. Grande then performed a medley of “Right There”, “You’ll Never Know” and “Break Your Heart Right Back” which displays dark and light blue lighting effects with pink and green included. Grande and her dancers make their way to front of the stage using a small walkway that leads to a small circle stage that stands in between the two pits of the stage. Near the end of the medley, the "moon" lowers down and prepares for the next song. Once there, Grande and her dancers sit down on the edge of stage and she sings "NASA" which displays and shows colorful space and galaxy sky effects. After that, Grande makes her way back to the small circle stage and sings "Goodnight n Go" concluding the third part of the show with the moon spinning around showing a moon display and the projection screen showing falling stars.
The fourth part of the show begins with a third interlude of "In My Head" then Grande returned to the stage after a costume change. She performs "Everytime" with the stage displaying blue and pink lighting effects and wears a sparkly orange dress with a puffy orange jacket and knee high boots. She then returns to the small circle stage to perform a shortened version of "One Last Time". The visuals used here are said to be linked to Manchester as the visuals look like pink balloons which was a symbol of Manchester. She takes off the jacket and makes her way to the catwalk and performs a shortened version of "The Light Is Coming" with the stage displaying orange and white lighting effects. This is followed by a shortened performance of "Into You" which the stage displays and shows yellow lighting effects and silhouette visuals of a female displaying on the projection screen. Grande exits the stage for a costume change and concludes the fourth part of the show.
The fifth part of the show starts with a fourth interlude of Grande singing a cover of Marilyn Monroe's song, "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" and enters the stage performing a reworked version of "Dangerous Woman" with the stage showing wavy purple light effects. Following this, she performs “Break Free”. Grande then talks to the crowd and thanks them for coming, then performing "No Tears Left to Cry" with the projection screen showing pink colors with umbrellas and her backup dancers wearing buttoned up black dress shirts with black slacks and dancing with umbrellas. Grande thanks the audience and exits the stage for a final costume change.
After 2 minutes of silence and for the encore, a final interlude pops up and plays and displays the words: “Ariana Grande’s F**k*ng Exes” “Ariana Grande Calls Off Her Engagement” and shows tweets from her Twitter account with songs lyrics and celebrity gossip pages. After the interlude, the stage shows and projects purple lighting effects and Grande and her dancers rise from the stage and she performs "Thank U, Next". Grande and her dancers wear solid and striped clothing and Grande herself wears high knee boots that shows stripes on the front and a checker pattern on the back. She loops around the stage performing and making her way back the first time, confetti blows out as she still performs. After that, all her dancers are together and they make their way around the stage waving to audience members. Grande thanks everyone for coming to the show and exits the stage.

Critical reception

The tour has received positive reviews from critics. Brittany Spanos from Rolling Stone gave the opening night at Albany a positive review, stating that "Grande's new world tour is full of emotional drama, iconic looks, and undeniable hits". Spanos also commented on Grande's looks, stating that "fewer and fewer young stars today have the kind of distinctive aesthetic that can be reproduced en masse by fans, but Grande has dedicated years to perfecting how she has presented herself. In 2019, it seems the world has finally caught up to her. Or, as her frequent collaborator and friend Nicki Minaj predicted on “Side to Side” three years ago: “Ariana run pop." Chris Richards of the Washington Post gave a positive review to Grande's show in Washington D.C, stating that "Ariana Grande reached the height of her fame by making heavy feel light". He praised her vocals stating that "Grande's voice is equal parts breathy and acrobatic, and she knows how to hit a big note like she's whispering it". Chris Willman of Variety praised Grande's two night show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, calling the show "giddy, splendorous, beautifully designed, expertly performed and almost a little bit avant-garde in its staging". He also stated that it was "much more than at Coachella, her visually experimental Staples stop was revealed as a thing of inventive beauty, not to mention expertly sung fun."
The second leg of the tour in Europe has also received positive reviews. Adam White of The Telegraph gave the show a 5 out of 5 stars, stating that the show was "a night of magic and melancholy from the most exciting young star in pop". Cydney Yeates of Metro gave the show 4 out of 5 stars, stating that "there's nothing more to say now besides God*is*a woman and her name is Ariana Grande." Hannah Mylrea of NME noted that "the production was fairly understated, putting the full focus on her impressive vocals, but there were moments of impressive choreography".
Grande's headlining performance at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was praised by critics, with many praising her vocals, visuals, and guest appearances, particularly the appearance of NSYNC. Shad Powers of USA Today stated that "Grande closed out Weekend One of Coachella in style, putting together a set that included special guests, stunning visuals, and of course her undeniable voice." Rhian Daly of NME called her set "a breathtaking moment of light in a dark world". She also stated that, after the end of the set, "the feeling was already mutual long before Grande took to the stage but its foundations are more solid than ever". In another positive review, Ben Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian stated that "with her headline set surveying her entire career, work forms a fascinating, still-unfolding pop Bildungsroman: every sexual epiphany and personal milestone sketched out in real time, resulting in a uniquely involving opus. You can see why she is such an icon to a generation who also tell their own stories in public, via Snapchat and Instagram." Claire Shaffer from Rolling Stone stated that "Grande gave a star-studded headlining performance", naming NSYNC's guest appearance as one of the best moments of the 2019 Coachella. Suzy Exposito continued, "Grande became one of the boys that night, claiming Timberlake’s verses from the center stage and whipping her lustrous, anime pony like a boss." Lyndsey Havens of Billboard called Grande's set "epic" and stated that she "continues to rewrite the rule book for pop stardom and admittedly fosters a new relationship with herself." She praised Grande's collaboration with NSYNC, stating "all together with Grande, they delivered well-practiced choreography, sang the track she samples with her filling in for Timberlake and finally ended with "Tearin' Up My Heart."

Commercial performance

The Sweetener World Tour grossed over $146.4 million with 1.3 million tickets sold. It surpassed her previous tour, the Dangerous Woman Tour as her best grossing and biggest tour to date. The tour grossed $106.9 million in the U.S. and Canada and $39.5 million in Europe. Overall, Grande's total tour figures extends to $243.5 million with 2.7 million tickets sold from 229 shows.

Set list

This set list is representative of the March 18, 2019, show in Albany. It does not represent all concerts for the duration of the tour.
  1. "Raindrops "
  2. "God Is a Woman"
  3. "Bad Idea”
  4. "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored"
  5. "R.E.M"
  6. "Be Alright"
  7. "Sweetener"
  8. "Successful"
  9. "Side to Side"
  10. "Bloodline"
  11. "7 Rings"
  12. "Love Me Harder"
  13. "Breathin"
  14. "Needy"
  15. "Fake Smile"
  16. "Make Up"
  17. "Right There"
  18. "You'll Never Know"
  19. "Break Your Heart Right Back"
  20. "NASA"
  21. "Goodnight n Go"
  22. "Everytime"
  23. "One Last Time"
  24. "The Light Is Coming"
  25. "Into You"
  26. "Dangerous Woman"
  27. "Break Free"
  28. "No Tears Left to Cry"
  29. "Thank U, Next"

    Shows

Cancelled shows