Ariana Grande’s life was going great mid-2018. She was engaged to Pete Davidson, she had just released her chart-topping album Sweetener and was planning to go on tour! Although, things took a dark turn when her ex-boyfriend and rapper Mac Miller died. She broke off her engagement and took her best friends to the one place in the world where she would be able to cope: the studio. Before she knew it, she had created her most vulnerable yet strongest album in only two weeks that would score her two chart-topping singles, 5 Grammy nominations and the record for being the only solo artist to have all the songs in the top 3 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. What was this album called? thank u, next.
Grande released the lead single and title track for the album in early November on a Saturday night, right before an episode of SNL that featured her ex-fiancé. Her fans immediately fell in love with the mid-tempo pop song and managed to secure Grande her first #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 without even a full week of tracking. In the song, Grande sings about how grateful she is for her exes and she even mentions Big Sean, Ricky Alvarez, Pete Davidson and the late Mac Miller in the first verse.
After a few months of anxiously waiting, the promotional single “imagine” and the chart-topping “7 rings” where Grande flaunts her worth, thank u, next was finally released on February 8, 2019. You may think that Grande’s fans were a bit too needy for new music, considering that Grande had just released Sweetener in August of 2018. Well ironically, “needy” is the second track on the album and it's one of everybody's favourites. Grande sings “Sorry if I'm up and down a lot, sorry that I think I'm not enough, and sorry if I say sorry way too much” in the second verse of the song. The production is simple yet effective and Grande’s vocals shine on this song.
One interesting thing that fans quickly noticed about thank u, next is that the album and its predecessor Sweetener were polar opposite in terms of themes and emotions. Sweetener can be described as a healing album, while thank u, next is much darker and Grande sings about loss and heartbreak. For example, Grande sings “Though I wish he were here instead, don't want that living in your head, he just comes to visit me when I'm dreaming every now and then” in the first verse of “ghostin,” a ballad about loving someone while you’re with a different person. Fans have assumed that Grande is talking about missing Mac Miller while she was with Pete Davidson. Another example is “fake smile,” in which Grande admits that she isn’t happy and that she isn’t going to fake that she is. This is one of the standout tracks on the album because of its vulnerability, Grande’s (perfect-as-always) vocals and upbeat production.
Although, Grande doesn’t only sing about loss on this album. The pop banger “bloodline” produced by Max Martin is about a relationship that Grande sees only as a fling and not something serious. It is definitely one of the more upbeat songs on thank u, next and it was refreshing to hear after "imagine," "needy" and "NASA," three slower songs that open the album. The third and final single on the album “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored” is about wishing that you could be with someone, even though they’re already taken. The production is trap-inspired and it was the last song to be written for the album.
In conclusion, Grande was able to turn her sadness and hurt into pop perfection on thank u, next. Who knew that she would be able to make arguably her best body of work in less than two weeks!
Stream thank u, next by Ariana Grande on Spotify and Apple Music.
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