Do we like Ariana Grande?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Consistent public support for LGBTQ+ people and migrants, a big Manchester fundraiser, and only a few settled copyright suits to mark the record.
That fund raised more than US$23 million from the public and through her, and it later announced that each family of the 22 people killed would get $324,000. She also re-released a single and put out a cover with the proceeds going to victims. That's a practical response, not just a hashtag.
On the harm test she comes out well. At the January 2026 Golden Globes she wore an ‘ICE OUT’ pin, part of a pin campaign organised by advocacy groups after a fatal shooting by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. No harmful words of hers turned up, and we found no campaigning against anyone's rights.
The recent stoush came in June 2026, when the White House put her song Bye over a TikTok of federal agents arresting people. She commented that it was ‘barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense’, and a source close to her said her team was working to get it removed. A White House spokesperson fired back, arguing the barbaric ones are people it called criminal illegal aliens.
The blemishes are small and legal. In 2019 painter Vladimir Kush sued her, Universal and a director, alleging a music video used his artwork without permission. It settled in a Nevada federal court, and her lawyer said it was settled to the satisfaction of all parties. Cases like that are common for big pop stars and don't point to a pattern of treating people badly.
Her 2026 Eternal Sunshine tour is her first since 2019. She told Amy Poehler's podcast it could be her ‘last hurrah’ for a long while, so catch her if you can. The record is thinner on her day-to-day treatment of staff, but nothing nasty turned up.