From: litewave99@gmail.com   
      
   To sum up the timeline of curious events leading up to Ariana Grande's new   
   album:   
      
   April 20: the first single "No Tears Left To Cry" is released, introducing the   
   themes of "upside down" and "one and many". The "upside down" theme is   
   conveyed in Ariana's social media messages written upside down, the song's   
   name written upside down on    
   the single's cover, and in the shifting of up and down directions in the   
   video. This has been widely interpreted as referring to an upheaval, the world   
   turning upside down, losing and re-finding your ground, and the video also   
   appears to contain a    
   reference to a dark parallel world called "Upside Down" from the TV series   
   Stranger Things (a tunnel lined with lights; when filming this scene, Ariana   
   was joking about being Millie Bobby Brown on the set of Stranger Things). The   
   "one and many" theme is    
   conveyed in the video with multiplication of Ariana's face and showing her as   
   an undefined, faceless being that puts on and off masks/faces.   
      
   May 7: Ariana attends for the first time the Met Gala fashion show, wearing a   
   dress with Michelangelo's painting "The Last Judgment", fitting with the   
   show's 2018 theme "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination".   
      
   June 20: promo single "The Light Is Coming" is released, where Ariana repeats   
   the sentence "The light is coming to give back everything the darkness stole".   
   The video is set in a dark forest and also appears to contain a reference to   
   the "dark side" of    
   Star Wars (red mist and red laser lights). The "one and many" theme is invoked   
   again, with multiple copies of Ariana moving around in the forest, at one   
   point merging into one.       
      
   July 13: the single "God Is a Woman" is released, inverting the masculine   
   image of God into feminine. At one point in the video Ariana cites (with   
   Madonna's voiceover) a paraphrase of Ezekiel 25:17, proclaiming that her name   
   is the Lord and promising    
   vengeance on those who attempt to harm her sisters. The "one and many" theme   
   re-appears as Ariana descends from a mountain populated by her copies.   
      
   August 17: release date for the album "Sweetener". Ariana said the meaning   
   behind the title is "It's kind of about like bringing light to a situation, or   
   to someone's life, or somebody else who brings light to your life, or   
   sweetening the situation." (   
   Note: in the New Testament, Jesus promises that the "Comforter" - meaning the   
   Holy Spirit - will be sent to teach you and make you remember all things.) The   
   "upside down" theme appears again with the upside-down photo of Ariana on the   
   album cover.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)