Ariana Grande. Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Ariana Grande didn’t make her highly anticipated return to the 2025 Grammy Awards after five years away.
The pop star, 31, didn’t attend the Sunday, February 2, ceremony at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Grande’s absence marked the fifth year in a row that she didn’t make an appearance at music’s biggest night.
Grande was nominated for three Grammys this year: Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “The Boy Is Mine” with Brandy and Monica, Best Pop Vocal Album for Eternal Sunshine and Best Dance Pop Recording for “Yes, And?”
Prior to Sunday’s ceremony, Grande was already a two-time Grammy winner, taking home the coveted trophy for Best Pop Vocal Album for Sweetener in 2019 and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for her “Rain on Me” collaboration with Lady Gaga in 2021. Throughout her career, she has earned a total of 18 nominations.
Now that the 2025 Grammys red carpet has been rolled out, see the fashion statements that the industry’s biggest stars are already serving on music’s biggest night in real time, as it all goes down on Sunday, February 2, in Los Angeles, California. With multiple multi-time Grammy winners scheduled to present (and possibly also collect) […]
Grande notably opted not to attend the 2019 awards show — the same year that she won her first Grammy — after producers reportedly refused to allow her to sing “7 Rings.” However, she returned in 2020 to perform a medley of her hits, including “7 Rings,” “Imagine” and “Thank U, Next.” This marked her most recent Grammys appearance.
Grande was once again missing from the crowd in 2021, when she earned her second Grammy alongside Gaga, 38, who was filming House of Gucci in Italy at the time.
For almost as long as the Grammys have existed, musicians have criticized the voting process, the nominations and the winners. Grammy disses have taken many forms over the years, but in the 21st century, much of the commentary has focused on the awards show’s history of excluding women and Black artists from the major categories. […]
Despite her three nominations in 2022, Grande skipped that ceremony too, writing via Instagram that it was “an honor to be recognized” and wishing her fellow nominees “a beautiful time” at the event while emphasizing that she was “celebrating all of you there.”
The 2025 Grammy Awards come amid a very busy season in Grande’s life. In January, she earned her first Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Galinda in the 2024 musical Wicked. (Grande will compete against A Complete Unknown’s Monica Barbaro, The Brutalist’s Felicity Jones, Conclave’s Isabella Rossellini and Emilia Pérez’s Zoe Saldaña for Actress in a Supporting Role at the March 2 ceremony.)
“Picking my head up in between sobs to say thank you so much to @theacademy for this unfathomable recognition. I cannot stop crying, to no one’s surprise,” Grande gushed via Instagram after her Oscar nomination was announced. “I’m humbled and deeply honored to be in such brilliant company and sharing this with tiny Ari who sat and studied Judy Garland singing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ just before the big, beautiful bubble entered. I’m so proud of you, tiny.”
