Ariana Grande’s Petal era is starting with Justin Long, an underground bunker, and a plan that goes wrong fast.
Grande released the music video for “hate that i made you love me” on Monday, June 1, days after dropping the single as the first taste of her upcoming album Petal. Just Jared reported that Long co-stars in the fiery video, which turns the track into a dark relationship thriller with a horror-comedy edge.
The visual opens with Long holding a shovel and burying Grande in an underground bunker surrounded by notebooks marked with her insecurities. From there, she refuses to stay buried.
Justin Long Slowly Loses Control
The video was directed by Christian Breslauer, who also directed Grande’s Brighter Days Ahead short film. Universal Music Canada confirmed that Academy Award winner Janusz Kaminski served as director of photography for the “hate that i made you love me” video.
Long’s character spends much of the video trying to escape Grande’s presence after burying her. Just Jared reported that she begins haunting him, appearing as a vision in his car and causing a wreck as his panic builds.
The story keeps pushing the absurdity further. At one point, Long’s character tries to burn memories of their relationship and accidentally sets himself on fire. Later, he ends up in a diner where the waitress is named Petal and the kitchen staff turns into Grande.
The diner scene turns the video’s central idea into a full visual joke. Long is not only haunted by Grande. He is surrounded by her, unable to find a room, road, or stranger who does not somehow lead back to the person he tried to bury.
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The Video Ends With a Dark Reversal
The final twist brings the story back underground.
After realizing he cannot escape her, Long’s character returns to dig Grande up and goes back down into the bunker. Instead, he discovers that Grande is outside, and the video ends with her burying him.
The title suggests regret over making someone fall in love. The video turns that regret into a physical trap, with Long playing a man who tries to erase a relationship and ends up trapped by it instead.
Long’s casting gives the clip a specific tone. He has enough horror and thriller history to make the darker setup feel intentional, while his panic keeps the video from becoming grim. Grande does not need to explain the metaphor in dialogue. The bunker, the car, the diner, and the final shovel do the work.
The Song Opens Grande’s Petal Era
“hate that i made you love me” was released Friday, May 29, as the first single from Grande’s eighth studio album, Petal.
Universal Music Canada confirmed that the song was co-written and produced by Grande, ILYA, and Max Martin. The label also confirmed that Petal is scheduled for release July 31 through Republic Records.
PEOPLE reported that Grande released the song ahead of her Eternal Sunshine Tour, which begins June 6 at Oakland Arena in California and continues through Sept. 1 at London’s O2 Arena.
The timing puts Grande back into a full music rollout after the Eternal Sunshine era and her recent film work as Glinda in Wicked. Universal Music Canada described Petal as an album Grande executive produced and co-wrote with ILYA.
The “hate that i made you love me” video gives the new era a sharp first image: Grande gets buried, haunts the man who did it, and ends the story with the shovel in her hands.