Ariana Grande has looked back on her 2023, admitting that while she has “never felt more pride or joy or love”, she has also felt “so deeply misunderstood by people who don’t know me”.

Grande has largely been away from the spotlight for much of 2023 while she’s been working on the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Positions’ but earlier this year addressed fans’ “concerns” over her body by urging them to be kinder to others and remember that “healthy can look different”.

In a new post on her Instagram story, Grande wrote that 2023 was “one of the most transformative, yet most challenging, and yet happiest and most special years of my life. there were so many beautiful and yet polarised feelings.

“I’ve never felt more at the mercy of and in acceptance of what life was screaming to teach me. I’ve never felt more fulfilled by or present in my work, being able to cherish every moment. I gave everything I could have possibly given of my heart and of myself to the projects I was fortunate enough to be a part of and learned so much from every brilliant, beautiful soul that I had the privilege of creating art with and crossing paths with this year.

She continued: “I have never felt more pride or joy or love while simultaneously feeling so deeply misunderstood by people who don’t know me, who piece whispers together and make what they want out of me and their assumptions of my life. I have learned how much more important one of those things is than the other.

“i have never felt more tightly held or fiercely protected by those who love and understand me (friends, family and fans alike), I fel safe, even amongst things I’d usually be afraid of. I am listening to and trusting myself, even when fear or trauma tells me not to.”

“i am reacting to things that deserve my energy only and removing and protecting myself from things that are not.”

Meanwhile, Grande has been teasing her seventh album by sending a package and a note to fans.

The package contained a red lipstick from Grande’s beauty brand r.e.m and a photo featuring a close-up of her mouth in which she appears to be wearing a similar shade of lipstick. It was accompanied by a note reading ‘See you next year’, which also seems to have been written in lipstick.

A photo Grande shared to Instagram confirmed that producer Ilya Salmanzadeh had worked on the album. He had previously produced numerous hits for Grande, including ‘Problem’, ‘Bad Idea’, ‘breathin’ and ‘Santa Tell Me’.