Ariana Grande Takes Legal Action After Hackers Allegedly Stole Dozens of Unreleased Songs

Ariana Grande sued anonymous hackers, accusing them of illegally accessing private accounts tied to her team and leaking years of unreleased songs, music videos, and studio content online.

According to court documents filed on Monday, July 27, in Los Angeles and reviewed by Variety, the singer took legal action against a group of unidentified defendants, listed as John Does, over an alleged hacking operation that targeted photographers, producers, and other collaborators.

Grande sought to identify those responsible and hold them accountable for the alleged "unlawful and egregious theft, dissemination, and exploitation of unreleased content."

The complaint alleged that the defendants used phishing scams, backdoor access, and impersonation tactics to obtain confidential files before selling them for large amounts of money.

Grande's legal team claimed the alleged hacking campaign stretched back several years and affected multiple people who worked closely with the singer.

The lawsuit explained Grande pursued legal action to "uncover the identities of these currently unknown and unscrupulous individuals in order to hold them accountable for their invasive and reprehensible conduct."

The filing also stated that preventing similar incidents remained an important goal.

According to the lawsuit, hundreds of leaks had occurred since Grande released music in 2011.

The complaint outlined several alleged incidents involving people connected to Grande's creative projects.

It claimed that in 2019, hackers obtained login credentials for a Dropbox account belonging to a photographer who had worked with the singer.

The lawsuit further alleged that in the following year, hackers gained access to the mobile device of a producer who had collaborated with Grande. The filing said they accessed unreleased masters, demo recordings and footage from recording sessions.

Per the complaint, the alleged breaches continued in later years. It stated that hackers gained access to 45 unreleased Grande songs in 2023 and leaked them online.

The lawsuit also described a separate incident that allegedly took place in 2024.

According to the filing, hackers created a Gmail account and domain name that impersonated a photographer who had worked with Grande. The complaint alleged that the fake identity was used to convince a digital technician to send unreleased photographs belonging to the singer.

The lawsuit argued that the defendants repeatedly targeted people within Grande's professional circle to obtain confidential material that was never intended for public release.

In a 2024 interview with the "Zach Sang Show," Grande discussed a track titled "Fantasize," which she co-wrote with the renowned Swedish pop producer Max Martin, which eventually gained significant attention after being leaked and shared online

"Before I left for Wicked, the few studio sessions that I did, which are all, um- all over TikTok, thank you so much. I’ll see you in jail, literally," Grande said.

She added, "The thing is that those were all written for a TV show for … something that was not for me, so Fantasize comes out, crazy, was stolen... These pirates, crooks, illegal!"