Stars: 4/5
“Ariana Grande” Excuse Me, I Love You” is the closest thing I’ll experience to a Ariana Grande concert until who knows when. Even though I am an avid music fan, I have only been to one real concert my whole life. 2020 and 2021 ruined my chance to add to my concert passport.
The Sweetener World Tour supported Grande’s fourth album, “Sweetener,” and fifth album, “Thank U, Next.” According to Billboard Boxscore, 1.3 million tickets were sold and surpassed her previous Dangerous Woman Tour.
Thanks to the concert film, you can enjoy Ariana Grande’s 2019 Sweetener Tour in good quality. No more days of stalking YouTube for poor quality videos from hardcore fans on their iPhone in the nosebleed seats.
The concert was number 81 out of 101. Grande performed at the O2 Arena in London, the final stop in Europe. There’s everything from concert clips, Grande’s family and pets and Grande herself shown in the film. 
The setlist included a mix from each era but mainly included songs from the Sweetener and Thank U, Next eras. Grande threw back to each era in her discography, giving old and new fans the chance to scream at the top of their lungs.
“Ariana Grande: Excuse Me, I Love You” is fun and so euphoric for any fan of Ariana Grande. However, you don’t need to be a fan to enjoy it. The whole cast and crew are so friendly and likable. There is a family-like bond among everyone. The tour documentary’s cast all expressed gratitude and optimism.
Everything is perfectly accepting and lulling. The concert does everything right by taking fans or simple concert-goers into a different world. For 97 minutes, nothing else exists but the world and stories that Grande and her team created.
One thing that sets Grande’s concert apart from other pop concerts is that she shares the spotlight with her dancers and band. The opening track “God is a Woman” is a prime example of that. The dance crew surrounded Grande as she sang. Each person working to tell a story on stage.
One stand-out moment was when a young fan cried about being too high up. Grande’s mother, Joan, invited the girl to watch the show from the floor area. Another is “the Mariah thing” when Mariah Carey asked Ariana Grande to record a video for the holidays. Grande shared Carey’s influence on her music and how she hopes Carey likes her.
The only downside of the documentary is that the audience doesn’t get a glimpse of the rehearsals or preparation for the tour. It seems more like a tour of the Sweetener Tour. We meet a few crew members and the team behind Ariana Grande, but we don’t see much of the hard work that goes in.
Also, the editing in between the concert scenes looks too VSCO filter-y for a tour documentary on some scenes. However, the typography and captions for cast members stood out compared to other tour documentaries and fit Grande’s aesthetic.
Finally, what I loved most about “Ariana Grande: Excuse Me, I Love You” is that it brings back a sense of normalcy and nostalgia. The pandemic has postponed any chance of having a true, euphoric concert. For music fans of every genre, concerts were a space of joy and blissfulness. I loved seeing fans smile, cry and dance along to songs. The documentary was something positive we need right now.