Ariana Grande filed a lawsuit Monday against anonymous hackers she accuses of a years-long campaign to steal and distribute her unreleased music, photos and video footage, court documents show. The complaint, submitted in Los Angeles and naming unidentified John Doe defendants, alleges the hackers broke into the personal accounts of photographers and producers who worked closely with the singer rather than targeting her directly, then leaked and sold the stolen material for profit.
According to the filing, the breaches date back years. In 2019, the suit claims, the defendants obtained login credentials for a photographer’s Dropbox account and pulled unreleased images. A year later, they allegedly hacked a producer’s mobile device and extracted in-progress masters, demos and studio footage. The complaint states that 45 unreleased songs were stolen and leaked in 2023 alone, and that Grande has faced hundreds of similar breaches since launching her music career in 2011. Two additional phishing attacks in 2024 targeted unreleased photos, the suit alleges.
Grande’s attorneys claim the hackers sold the material in batches through PayPal and Cash App before it spread across various online platforms, and that buyers of the stolen files have continued publishing it without her consent. The complaint frames the conduct as a violation of “the direct and sacred relationship that exists between her and her fans,” and seeks damages under California’s computer hacking statutes along with claims of invasion of privacy and conversion, the civil equivalent of theft. Grande is also pursuing injunctive relief and has demanded a jury trial. Her legal team plans to seek subpoenas against internet providers and online platforms to trace the hackers’ identities through IP addresses and payment records.
The lawsuit lands as Grande prepares to release her eighth studio album. She has spoken publicly before about the toll of leaks, telling “The Zach Sang Show” in 2024 that the unauthorized release of her song “Fantasize” — written for a television project, not her own catalog — left her furious. “Thieves. Pirates. Crooks. Illegal,” she said at the time. A representative for Grande did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new filing.
