Ariana Grande paid tribute to her late ex-boyfriend Mac Miller as she launched her Sweetener World Tour on Monday night.
Prior to taking to the stage, Ariana included a track by Mac Miller on her pre-show playlist, catching the attention of fans in the crowd, who were touched by the subtle tribute.
Mac died last year at the age of 26, following an accidental overdose involving alcohol, cocaine and fentanyl, an opioid used as a pain medication.
He and Ariana dated for two years, eventually splitting in May 2018.
It was initially rumoured that Ariana had covered one of Mac’s songs when it was revealed that she had included a track called Remember on her latest album, Thank U Next.
However, when the album finally dropped in January, Remember had been left off the tracklist.
Mac is name-dropped, along with several of Ariana’s other exes, on the album’s title track, while the song Ghostin discusses how she coped in the immediate aftermath of his death, during which time she was still engaged to comedian Pete Davidson.
Ghostin was absent from the setlist of the Sweetener tour on its opening night, previously telling a fan that she would perform the emotional song live “if she can get through it”.
She tweeted: “I jus want to have a good time with y’all and like .... make it thru the show lol… Thank u for showing this song so much love. it means a great deal.”
The Sweetener tour setlist was mostly compiled of tracks from her last two albums, Sweetener and Thank U Next, but also featured cuts from her first three releases like Into You, Be Alright, Break Your Heart Right Back and You’ll Never Know.
Check out more pics from the tour in the gallery below…
