To anyone paying attention, it was sometime around the middle of last year while Ariana Grande was ramping up her Sweetener release that it became apparent that she would be an ideal presence at music festivals in 2019. This was before her Pete Davidson breakup, before her mega-hit “Thank U, Next,” and before she announced the most massive arena tour of her career. So, it came with a little surprise that Grande was not the first choice of Coachella, but actually stepped in at the last minute to replace a dome-wanting Kanye West, when it was hard to imagine someone more of the moment than Grande. And it looks like another major American music festival agrees, as reports say that Lollapalooza is also in talks to book Grande.
According to Variety, Grande has been booked for the Chicago festival. She will undoubtedly be a headliner, though it remains to be seen which day she will top. The news comes on the same day that Grande rescheduled many dates in April to clear space for Coachella preparations. Grande already has a pair of Chicago stops slotted for June, but that apparently won’t stand in the way for playing the city’s giant Grant Park festival. According to the report, talks were underway long before the Coachella announcement.
Of course, this festival won’t announce their lineup for several weeks, possibly even months, and this year’s festival season has taught us that nothing is final until the poster officially is released. This is still reason to get excited, though, as Grande’s presence at Lollapalooza looks, at worst, likely, and at best, locked in.
