We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)

"We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" is a song by American singer-songwriter Ariana Grande. It was released through Republic Records on March 8, 2024, as the second single from her seventh studio album Eternal Sunshine (2024). It is written and produced by Grande, Max Martin and Ilya Salmanzadeh. An synth-pop, electropop, power pop, and Europop song, its lyrics dually refer to the demise of a romantic relationship as well as Grande's relationship with the press.
The song was met positively by music critics and debuted atop the US Billboard Hot 100, marking Grande's ninth number-one single and her second from Eternal Sunshine after "Yes, And?". The song marked her seventh number-one debut, making her the female artist with the most number-one debuts in history, as well as her 22nd top-ten on the chart. It earned Grande her fourth number-one single on the Billboard Global 200 chart and reached number one in 12 countries in places like Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. Elsewhere, the song peaked within the top ten in 22 other countries, including Australia, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
An accompanying music video for "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)", directed by Christian Breslauer, was released simultaneously with the single. The concept for the video was inspired by the plot of the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and features Grande undergoing a memory erasure procedure to forget her ex-boyfriend, who is portrayed by American actor Evan Peters. The song garnered five nominations at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year; it won Best Cinematography. To promote the single, Grande performed it on Saturday Night Live and at the 2024 Met Gala.
The tracklist for Eternal Sunshine was not revealed entirely at once; instead partially on different days until the full tracklist was unveiled. Grande announced three track titles on February 7, 2024; "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" was revealed as the tenth track of the album. Also in February, the singer announced that there would be no more pre-release singles from Eternal Sunshine, as she wanted her fans to "experience it in full this time". However, she confirmed "more singles" would be issued after the album was released.
On March 1, Grande confirmed "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" was the second single from the album and posted a teaser for its music video on social media. In the clip, Grande sits in a waiting room and fills out a consent form reading, "You have given extensive thought behind your decision and give 'Brighter Days Inc.' the exclusive permission to remove this person completely from your memory." The singer puts a check mark next to "Yes" and then signs her name as "Peaches" with a heart on the contract line.
Republic Records released Eternal Sunshine on March 8, 2024; "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" is the tenth track on the album. The song was released as the second single in tandem with the album's release, following "Yes, And?". Three alternative versions of "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" were released on March 13, exclusively for download: a cappella, instrumental, and strings. In May, June, and July, the standard and alternative versions of the song were issued via CD, cassette, and 7-inch vinyl. An instrumental strings version of the track, grouped with the pre-released standard and alternative versions, was released in July, as part of a digital bundle via download and EP on streaming services. On September 8, 2024, to celebrate the six-month anniversary of the release of Eternal Sunshine, Grande surprise-released a live acoustic version of the song, recorded at Jungle City Studios.
"We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" is a synth-pop, Europop, electropop, and power pop song whose lyrics outwardly detail the demise of a relationship with the hope that an ex-lover will return and fall in love again. It has been speculated by fans and the media that the song describes Grande's symbiotic relationship with the press and its unsubstantiated reporting on her personal life; the lyrics have been interpreted to describe her choice to not engage with a cyclical nature of acclaim and criticism directed towards her.
Laura Snapes of The Guardian wrote that the song evokes "Call Your Girlfriend" by Robyn's "juddering synths and chiptune flourishes" with a final "jarringly retro" effect. Erica Gonzales & Samuel Maude of Elle magazine stated that the song giving "big Robyn vibes, big "Dancing On My Own" vibes" from the song and called it a coming-of-age pop song.
Kyle Denis of Billboard described the song as "a dancefloor-quaking amalgam of dizzying strings and aggressive synths" wherein Grande sings about "the fuzzying of the boundaries between friendship, romance and the aching gray in between", pointing out that "it is missing a climax to really achieve the catharsis that its urgent instrumental gestures toward".
"We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" debuted at number one on both the Billboard Global 200 and the Global Excl. U.S. charts dated March 23, 2024. It marked her second consecutive single from the album Eternal Sunshine to top both charts after "Yes, And?" did so in January. On the Global 200, it became her fourth number-one single after "Positions" (2020), "Save Your Tears" (2021), and "Yes, And?". The song opened with 97.5 million streams and 14,000 sold worldwide, outpacing the streaming start of "Yes, And?", which drew 94.4 million globally. On the Global Excl. U.S., it became her third number-one single after "Positions" and "Yes, And?", and achieved 65.5 million streams and 5,000 sold outside the US. On Luminate's 2024 midyear music report, "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" ranked as the ninth most-streamed song of the year worldwide by overall on-demand audio streaming volume, achieving 826 million streams between January 1 and July 1, 2024.
In the United States, "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for the chart issue dated March 23, 2024. It became Grande's ninth overall number-one single on the chart, fourth consecutive following the remixes of "Save Your Tears" (2021) and "Die for You" (2023) as well as "Yes, And?", and her second consecutive from the album Eternal Sunshine, following the chart-topping debut of "Yes, And?" earlier in January. With this, Grande tied Katy Perry and Beyoncé for the seventh-most Hot 100 number-ones among solo women. "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" was also her seventh career single to debut at the top of the Hot 100, leading Grande to surpass Taylor Swift as the female artist with the most number-one debuts. She additionally became the artist with the second-most number-one debuts in history, only trailing Drake's nine. "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" debuted at the top slot of the Billboard Streaming Songs chart with 32.6 million streams, outpacing the debut week of "Yes, And?" and earning Grande her sixth chart-topper there. It also debuted at number four on the Billboard Digital Songs chart with 9,000 units sold, and earned 4.6 million radio airplay audience impressions in its opening week. Additionally, the song marked the first time Grande topped the Hot 100 with two singles from the same album since Thank U, Next (2019) spawned two number-one singles with its title track and "7 Rings". With this, Grande became the first woman artist in history to have two albums produce multiple number-one debuts. "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" charted for 24 weeks on the Hot 100, before going recurrent and departing the chart in the first issue of September. It was the seventh-most-streamed song globally on Deezer in 2024.
The music video for "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" is directed by Christian Breslauer. It was filmed on the south campus grounds of the California Polytechnic State University located in the city of Pomona, California. It premiered via Grande's Vevo channel on YouTube at 10:00 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on March 8, 2024, ten hours after the song's and album's release. The concept of the visual is heavily inspired by the plot of the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004); it was described by Grande as "[Eternal Sunshine] in a video".
Grande portrays a character named Peaches while Evan Peters plays as her ex-boyfriend in the video. Several scenes from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are referenced in the video, while a reference to a Sixteen Candles (1984) scene is made as well. Billboard called the video "futuristic".
The video opens with Grande portraying a character named Peaches, seen sitting in a waiting room holding a consent form reading: "You have given extensive thought behind your decision and give 'Brighter Days Inc.' the exclusive permission to remove this person completely from your memory". Peaches reluctantly ticks a box labeled 'yes' and signs the form. A doctor enters the waiting room to call Peaches for her treatment. She gives the doctor her consent form and carries a box of belongings with her to the room. Peaches is then shown seated and about to begin her procedure. The doctor takes a teddy bear from the box and uses a device to remove it from existence and from Peaches' memory. How the teddy bear came to be and its link to Peaches's relationship with her ex-boyfriend is then shown as the wall of the operation room divides into two and shows them both entering an arcade. They approach a claw game and are seen winning the teddy bear. Suddenly, the arcade goes dark and her ex-boyfriend disappears from the memory.
Shifting to a bedroom, Peaches is seen sitting on a bed looking towards her ex-boyfriend whilst he is frowning, turned away from her. The scene shifts once again, this time to a different memory where she is seen opening a door leading her to see them both lying in the snow creating snow angels. The scene ends again with her ex-boyfriend disappearing from the memory. Peaches is seen next holding hands with her ex-boyfriend in a bed under a blanket. The bed is divided into two and the pair are separated, leaving her alone under the blanket.
Back in the operation room, in the belongings, a framed picture of the couple celebrating Peaches's birthday with a cake can be seen. They lean towards each other and her ex-boyfriend disappears to Peaches's surprise. Now alone, she blows out the candles on the cake before the scene returns to the operation room. Peaches gains consciousness and becomes emotional. Another memory is shown where she and her ex-boyfriend are together on a sofa. He gives her a necklace but the memory alters with the necklace morphing into a dog collar and her ex-boyfriend being replaced with a dog. The living room also alters, with picture frames and other decor transforming to omit every memory of the couple. Peaches and her dog watch the TV in the room and a final montage of each of the memories is played. The scene cuts back to the operation room where Peaches is seen shaking hands and hugging the doctors involved with her treatment. Her box of belongings is then shown to be incinerated. After leaving the operation room, Peaches walks with a guy past her ex-boyfriend, who is seen also walking with a girl, unaware of each other's existence.
On March 9, 2024, Grande appeared as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. She performed "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" live for the first time, alongside "Imperfect for You", also from Eternal Sunshine. As the surprise performer at the 2024 Met Gala, Grande performed the song along with "Yes, And?" and "The Boy Is Mine" alongside other songs.
Streaming/digital download – single
Streaming/digital download – acoustic (live from Jungle City Studios)
'We Can't Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)" was expected by various critics and publications to receive nominations for Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards. Upon the song receiving no nominations at all, Grande was named one of the biggest snubs of the ceremony by several publications.