Right now, Ariana Grande has a hold on the media unlike she’s ever had before. She’s starring in the current No. 2 movie in the world, while also being the fifth most-listened artist on Spotify.

However, as a fan of hers, I’m conflicted. I don’t know whether or not to be happy for her exemplary levels of success, or terrified at some of the warning signs that such astronomical levels of triumph may be concealing.

For the past couple of years, discourse around the former “Victorious” star has been just as much about her artistic wonders as they’ve been about her puzzling actions outside of both the set and studio.

While she’s far from “criminal” levels of problematic like others who remain notable in the music industry, she now teeters on the line of moral peculiarity that many controversial stars have flirted with over the years.

It’s been a long-running joke for years that Grande has different “alter-egos” for her different eras — that she slightly alters her appearance and dialect depending on who she’s around. “The different races of Ariana” such as “Blackiana” and “Arigato” have been dominating my TikTok feeds for longer than I can remember.

However, in her current era — seemingly reflective of her on-screen identity, “Glinda the Good” — Grande’s demeanor has taken a noticeable change, and it’s contributed to an increase of scrutiny she’s received in the media.

From allegations that she “stole” current boyfriend Ethan Slater while he was married to his pregnant ex-wife to bizarre interviews that highlight the weirdly co-dependent relationship she has with her similarly talented co-star Cynthia Erivo, her actions and persona have left fans puzzled at the very least.

There are entire, multiple-minute-long compilations that fans have made chronicling her and Erivo’s lengthy list of uncomfortable interview moments on both “Wicked” press tours. Clips of Erivo randomly kissing Grande’s arm for no reason, clips of them constantly randomly bursting into tears mid-interviews and other general awkward moments of them fondling each other that we’ve all been unable to escape.

However, while those around her see these behaviors in the “Wicked” era as a bit jarring, Grande sees her transformation since re-entering the acting world as something that revitalized her, saying in an interview with The New York Times that stepping into her role as Glinda has reinvigorated her passion for music.

“There was something broken about my relationship to pop music that was healed recently through the time away,” Grande said.

However, for Grande’s sake, I hope that the conversation ends at mere interview eccentricities, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from the music industry, it’s that things are never as simple as the artists we adore and their teams would like to lead us to believe. What begins as mild quirks in artistic personas can develop into something much more sinister with time.

We’ve seen how the appearance of creative wonders time and time again — and the financial and cultural success that often follow them — can cloud our eyes to the harsh realities of their situations. An artist’s career doesn’t have to tank for them to show signs of damage.

Perhaps the most uncomfortable subject in Grande’s transformation is her drastic change in physical appearance, as she appears notably frailer, which has led fans to express their concerns about her health. We shouldn’t bully her for it, but we also shouldn’t pretend like everything is okay either.

I love Grande. She is, in my opinion, the best vocalist of our generation, and she blends genres in a way that not many pop artists can do — she’s consistently one of my most listened to every year. As someone who isn’t even necessarily the biggest fan of musicals, she was the only reason I cared about the “Wicked” film duology. In “Wicked: For Good,” frankly, I thought her performance was the highlight of the film.

However, we have to be honest with ourselves about how uncomfortable some of these behaviors are — it is, at the very least, a bit worrying. Grande is a generational talent who has displayed an abundance of compassion to her fans and fellow artists alike throughout the years. All we want is for her to keep the momentum she has going while also maintaining her emotional and physical health.

Kailen Hicks is a junior writing about current trends, conflicts and discourse around music in his column “Noteworthy Noise,” which runs every other Wednesday.