Pop star Ariana Grande has filed a lawsuit against two unknown hackers who she alleges broke into her collaborators’ computers and leaked unreleased music, demos, and studio footage online.
The legal documents, filed in Los Angeles and reported this week, claim the hackers targeted photographers, producers, and other people who work closely with Grande in order to steal material and sell it “on the dark web” for “significant sums of money.
“In 2023 alone, 45 unreleased songs belonging to Ms Grande were hacked, stolen, and leaked,” the documents state. “Since her music debut in 2011, hundreds of similar leaks have taken place.”
Her legal team says they are seeking to uncover the identities of the hackers and hold them accountable for what they describe as a sustained pattern of illegal activity.
The lawsuit outlines several specific incidents. In 2025, the hackers allegedly gained access to the mobile device of a producer who had worked with Grande and downloaded unreleased masters, demos, and behind-the-scenes footage from recording sessions.
A year earlier, in 2024, the suit claims the defendants created a fake email account impersonating a photographer. Using that account, they allegedly persuaded a digital technician to send them unreleased photos belonging to Grande
Grande has spoken publicly about her frustration with leaks before. In a 2024 interview on the Zach Sang Show, she addressed a song called Fantasize, written with Swedish producer Max Martin, that went viral after being posted online without her permission.
“Before I left for Wicked — [there were] a few studio sessions that I did which are all over TikTok, thank you so much, I’ll see you in jail. Literally,” she said at the time.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!”
Her lawyers argue the leaks go beyond lost music. In the court filing, they accuse the hackers of violating “the sacred relationship that exists between her and her fans” and of causing “substantial and irreparable harm” to her career and privacy.
She is also currently in the middle of her Eternal Sunshine world tour, with UK dates scheduled for August.in recent interviews, Grande has hinted that this tour may be her last for a while. Speaking on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, she said:
“I’m going to give it my all and it’s going to be beautiful. I think that’s why I’m doing it because I’m like: ‘One last hurrah’ — for now.”the singer took a break from touring to film the two-part movie adaptation of Wicked, and has said she wants to focus on acting and music on her own terms going forward
Leaks have become a persistent problem in the music industry, especially with artists who record with large teams and store material across multiple devices and studios. Unreleased tracks often appear on fan forums, TikTok, and dark web marketplaces months or years before an official release.
For artists, the impact is more than financial. Leaked demos can be unfinished, taken out of context, or not intended for release at all. They can also disrupt planned rollouts and album narratives.
Grande’s case is one of the most high-profile attempts in recent years to pursue legal action against the people behind the leaks, rather than just issuing takedowns.
Her team said in the filing that identifying the defendants is the first step, and they plan to pursue damages once the individuals are named because the hackers are currently “unidentified,” Grande’s lawyers will likely use the lawsuit to subpoena internet service providers, marketplaces, and other platforms in an effort to trace them
For now, Grande is focused on Petal and her tour. But the lawsuit signals she intends to push back hard against the leak culture that has followed her career for more than a decade.
