End of tour is bittersweet for pop superstar Grande
After a year packed with tragedy and another of wild success, singer is full of gratitude
Toward the end of her Sweetener tour stop at Chase Center in San Francisco on Tuesday, Dec. 17, Ariana Grande was overcome with emotion.
“I don’t want this show to end,” she said, drawing a heavy breath.
Not one to veer off script, the 26yearold pop sensation appeared briefly at a loss for words: “After this one ... I won’t say it. F— it. We don’t have to talk about it.”
She turned to members of her band and sighed, fighting back a few tears, “We’re just going to be present and enjoy the moment.”
On Sunday, Dec. 22, Grande plans to be in her current hometown of Los Angeles to play the final set of the 100plusdate global tour that began in March in Albany, N.Y. The reality of the situation seemed to strike her as the opening show of her twonight run in San Francisco came to a close.
“I don’t want it to end,” she repeated.
For the previous 90 minutes, Grande had put on a spectacular if somewhat antiseptic show, focusing primarily on material from her two most recent albums, this year’s “Thank U, Next” and 2018’s “Sweetener.”
Performing against a set that felt like a backdrop from “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” complete with two moons — one hanging from the ceiling, the other hovering center stage — and an angular catwalk that ran through the audience, Grande and her nine backing dancers proficiently swanned through the routines they have executed again and again this year.
From the opening tableau based on Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” that introduced “God Is a Woman” to the ultrapink suburban scene that accompanied her song “7 Rings,” the show has inevitably given away all its surprises through pop culture memes. The set is famously understated and underlit, with the focus falling entirely on Grande’s voice.
On Tuesday, she filled out her vocals with the assistance of backing tracks, which made songs like “R.E.M.” and “Be Alright” seamlessly blend into one another. The progression of the evening was mystifying too; it was divided into five acts and an encore. But the only discernible change of atmosphere came when she deployed her biggest hits at the end of the evening.
Even a medley of holidaythemed songs from her 2015 EP “Christmas and Chill,” which she dropped into the middle of the set, felt oddly austere.
Oh well. Grande, a former child star, is a tireless entertainer, and if anyone deserves a victory lap, it’s her. She is having her biggest year since launching her recording career in 2013.
In November, she picked up five nominations for the 2020 Grammy Awards, including nods for album of the year and best pop vocal album for “Thank U, Next”; record of the year and best pop solo performance for “7 Rings”; and best pop duo/group performance for “Boyfriend,” a collaboration with her tour’s opening act, Social House.
Despite a few mishaps along the way — she fell off the stage in Florida and was forced to cancel a show in Kentucky after a bout with an undisclosed illness — Grande is in a much better place.
This time last year, she was dealing with the aftermath of calling off her engagement with comedian Pete Davidson; the death of an exboyfriend, rapper Mac Miller; and the lingering anxiety that followed the bombing of her show in Manchester, England, in 2017.
But on Tuesday, she seemed truly grateful to have pulled through it all and to be standing on that stage.
“I love you all,” she said. Aidin Vaziri is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop music critic. Email: avaziri@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MusicSF