A legal battle has been initiated by Ariana Grande against hackers who have allegedly been stealing and profiting from her unreleased music, photos, and videos over an extended period. The singer has filed a lawsuit in California state court, accusing a group of unidentified individuals of conducting a long-running hacking scheme targeting her associates and individuals with access to her unreleased content. This illicit activity has led to the unauthorized theft, distribution, and commercialization of Grande’s private materials.
The lawsuit specifies that in the year 2023 alone, 45 unreleased songs by Grande were hacked, stolen, and leaked, with numerous similar incidents occurring since her debut in 2011. The complaint details various breaches that occurred over the years, including the alleged theft of a photographer’s Dropbox account login details in 2019 and the hacking of a producer’s phone in the following year, resulting in the leakage of unreleased music and footage.
The most recent incident outlined in the lawsuit reportedly took place in 2024, involving a phishing campaign targeting a digital technician associated with a photographer Grande collaborated with. The hackers allegedly created a fake Gmail account and internet domain to impersonate the photographer, persuading the technician to share confidential materials with them.
Ariana Grande has previously spoken out against hackers leaking her unreleased content, citing an incident where a song she co-wrote and produced with Max Martin, titled “Fantasize,” was leaked online without her consent. In an interview, she expressed frustration over the unauthorized dissemination of her work and referred to the perpetrators as “thieves, pirates, crooks.”
Legal experts, including Jeremy Goldman, have commented on the complexity of the situation, noting that the lawsuit serves as a means to gain subpoena power to trace the hackers through internet service providers and forensic records. Despite the challenges posed by the nature of cybercrime, similar legal actions have been taken against unidentified individuals in the past, as seen in a case involving singer Sia in 2023.
As Ariana Grande prepares for the release of her upcoming album “Petal,” she continues her Eternal Sunshine tour, with upcoming performances scheduled in Montreal this week.