Ariana Grande Sues Unnamed Hackers Over Stolen Songs, Photos and Footage Days Before *Petal*

Ariana Grande has been asking leakers to stop for years. On Monday (July 27) she took them to court, or tried to: the lawsuit names “John Doe” defendants because she doesn't know who they are, Rolling Stone reports, and the first job is to find out.

According to Billboard, as relayed by Rolling Stone, Grande filed the complaint in a Los Angeles court, claiming anonymous hackers stole unreleased music, photos and video footage that are “part of her personal and professional creative process and that are not intended for public consumption.” She alleges they targeted her photographers and producers to get in, then sold what they took “on the dark web” for large sums of money. She's suing for invasion of privacy, violation of California computer-hacking laws and conversion.

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The numbers are specific. The complaint, quoted by Pitchfork via People, says “In 2023 alone, 45 unreleased songs belonging to Ms. Grande were hacked, stolen, and leaked by Defendants. Since her music debut in 2011, hundreds of similar leaks have taken place.” It also cites a 2019 theft of “still-in-production, unreleased masters and demos and footage,” and two 2024 phishing attacks that took unreleased photos, Rolling Stone says.

The lawsuit is [also] intended to serve as a deterrent against future acts of this nature — not only targeting Ariana, but also the many artists who have faced similar invasions of their privacy and theft of their creative work.

A rep for Ariana Grande, to People, Pitchfork

How a John Doe suit works

Because the defendants are anonymous, Grande's lawyers structured the case so she can use civil discovery to compel platforms and internet providers to hand over identifying information, Complex explains. Her attorneys wrote that she brought the action “to uncover the identities of these currently unknown and unscrupulous individuals in order to hold them accountable.” The filing comes days after several major artists reportedly had YouTube and other platform accounts compromised, Complex adds.

Why it matters

Leaks are a long-running problem for Grande's catalog. In a 2024 interview on the Zach Sang Show, she addressed the leaked song “Fantasize” and the studio sessions that ended up on TikTok. “Thank you so much,” she said. “I’ll see you in jail, literally.”

The suit lands at the busiest moment of her year. Her album Petal arrives Friday (July 31), and it's already on our July guide to new music, and she's in the middle of her first tour in seven years, Pitchfork notes. Only one song has been heard so far, the lead single “Hate That I Made You Love Me,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100, per Billboard. On Tuesday she posted a black-and-white teaser for a visual starring a new character, an aspiring entertainer named Pepper: “Hello, I'm Pepper. I'm here for the audition today.”

What's next: the court's decision on subpoenas, and an album the leakers didn't get to first. Days later she'd tell a Chicago crowd that her break was planned.

Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.