Ariana Grande has filed a lawsuit against two unidentified hackers she accuses of breaking into her collaborators’ computers and leaking unreleased music, photos, and studio videos online.
Court papers filed in Los Angeles this week claim the hackers targeted producers and photographers who have worked with the pop star, then sold the stolen material “on the dark web” for “significant sums of money.”
Grande’s legal team said the action is aimed at uncovering who is behind the leaks and holding them accountable.According to the filing, the hackers have been operating for years, systematically going after people in Grande’s creative circle.
The documents allege that in 2023 alone, 45 unreleased songs belonging to Grande were hacked, stolen, and leaked. The suit also states that “since her music debut in 2011, hundreds of similar leaks have taken place.”
For 2025, the filing claims the defendants gained access to the mobile device of a producer who had collaborated with Grande. From there, they allegedly obtained unreleased masters, demos, and footage from recording sessions.
The previous year, 2024, the hackers are accused of creating a fake email account impersonating a photographer. Using that account, they allegedly persuaded a digital technician to send them unreleased photos that belonged to Grande
They accuse the hackers of violating the “sacred relationship that exists between her and her fans” and of causing “substantial and irreparable harm” through a breach of privacy.
The suit lists claims including invasion of privacy, violation of California computer hacking laws, and conversion — a legal term for the unauthorized use of someone’s property.
The goal of the filing, her lawyers said, is to use the court process to uncover the real identities of the hackers so further legal action can be taken.
In a 2024 interview on the Zach Sang Show, she talked about the song “Fantasize,” which she wrote with producer Max Martin for a TV project. The track went viral after it was 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!”
She has long expressed frustration that unfinished work, demos, and personal studio moments end up online, often stripped of context and released without her approval.
She is preparing for the release of her eighth studio album, Petal, due out this Friday. She is also in the middle of her Eternal Sunshine world tour, which is scheduled to reach the UK in August
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 star also stepped away from touring for a period to film the two-part movie adaptation of Wicked, where she plays Glinda. That project brought her back into the spotlight in a major way in 2024 and 2025.
For musicians, leaks are more than an annoyance. Unreleased songs are often works in progress — demos, alternate versions, or tracks written for other projects. When they surface online, it can disrupt release plans, affect streaming numbers, and take away an artist’s ability to present the work on their own terms.
The problem has grown with cloud storage and shared drives. Producers, photographers, and engineers who collaborate with big artists often hold files that, if compromised, can lead to large-scale leaks.grande’s case highlights that risk. Rather than targeting her directly, the suit alleges the hackers went after her collaborators’ accounts over several years.
Cybersecurity experts say this “supply chain” approach is increasingly common. Hackers impersonate trusted contacts, phish for passwords, or exploit weak security on personal devices to get to high-value material.because the defendants are listed as “unidentified,” the lawsuit is what’s known as a “John Doe” case. That allows Grande’s team to subpoena internet providers, email services, and marketplaces to try to trace the hackers.
If successful, the case could lead to the identities being revealed and to damages being sought for the alleged losses.grande has not made a separate public statement about the filing. Her team declined further comment beyond what was in the court documents.
For fans, the case underscores a tension that has followed Grande for years: the desire to share new music with an audience that is eager for anything she records, versus the artist’s right to control when and how that music is released with Petal set to arrive this week and tour dates ahead, the lawsuit signals that Grande and her team are taking a harder line on protecting unreleased material.
