The Ariana Grande Eternal Sunshine tour opened Saturday at Oakland Arena in Oakland, California, with the kind of pop-star bookkeeping fans tend to notice immediately: a tiny lyric gag, a laugh, and a very public nod to a private divorce.
During “Thank U, Next,” Grande revisited the 2019 single that famously name-checks some of her past relationships, including Pete Davidson, Big Sean and the late Mac Miller. When she reached the line, “Only wanna do it once, real bad,” she held up two fingers and laughed, appearing to joke that one marriage may not be the final count after all. Subtle? Not exactly. Effective? the crowd seemed to get it.
What did Ariana Grande do during “Thank U, Next”?
The moment came during a song already built around romantic postmortems, which made the timing hard to miss. In the original lyrics, Grande imagines walking down the aisle while holding hands with her mother and sings, “Only wanna do it once, real bad / Gon’ make that last.”
On opening night, after singing “Only wanna do it once, real bad,” she raised two fingers and laughed. The gesture seemed to reference her split from Dalton Gomez and the possibility that she may not be done with marriage.
Grande and Gomez, a luxury real estate agent, finalized their divorce in March 2024 after three years of marriage. Their separation had already become part of the broader conversation around Grande’s recent music, so the stage moment landed less like a random aside and more like an artist lightly marking up her own catalog in real time.
The tour is also a major return to the stage
The opening night carried extra weight because Grande has not toured in seven years. That alone made the Oakland show a significant reset, before clips of the marriage joke started spreading online.
At another point in the concert, Grande became emotional and appeared to fight back tears while addressing the crowd.
“I missed you,” she said as fans cheered. “It’s great to see you.”
“This is very overwhelming, so thank you so much for all of your love,” she added.
For an artist whose recent years have included major film work, tabloid scrutiny and a carefully parsed album rollout, the return to touring gives fans something more direct: Grande, onstage, reacting in the moment. Naturally, one raised hand gesture now has a life of its own online.
What were the terms of her divorce from Dalton Gomez?
Grande and Gomez had a prenuptial agreement, and their divorce settlement included several financial terms:
- Grande made a one-time payment of $1.25 million to Gomez.
- She agreed to give him half of the proceeds from the sale of their Los Angeles home.
- She also agreed to pay up to $25,000 toward his attorney fees.
An insider told Page Six in July 2023 that the split was mutual. “They came to the decision together,” the source said. “They were having problems before January, but they want to remain best friends.”
The former couple’s divorce was finalized in March 2024, closing out a marriage that had begun with relative privacy and ended under the usual bright, unhelpful celebrity spotlight.
How “Eternal Sunshine” has fed the speculation
Grande, 32, has also drawn attention for lyrics on “Twilight Zone,” a track from her 2025 album, “Eternal Sunshine,” that many listeners have interpreted as a possible reference to Gomez, 30.
On the song, she sings about believing she knew the person she was dating, only to later feel that the image did not match reality.
“Did I dream the whole thing? / Was I just a nightmare? / Different dimensions / Stuck in the twilight zone / Is this a black-and-white scene? / If so, then I’m in the gray one,” the lyrics read.
She continues, “Hope you win for Best Actor / ‘Cause I had you completely wrong,” before asking, “Does she know you’re not who you say you are?”
Grande is currently dating her “Wicked” co-star Ethan Slater, 34. The two have been linked since July 2023.
So yes, the tour began with vocals, emotion and a small hand gesture doing a surprising amount of narrative work. For Grande, “Thank U, Next” remains less a closed chapter than a living document with updated footnotes.
