Ariana Grande, the artist who doesn't want to hit the brakes
The singer has said not in just a few days to Isabel II and to perform at the Grammys for excessive limitations. Now she is launching a new album in which she claims female empowerment
In recent times, Ariana Grande has shown a new facet that takes her away from the angelic Nickelodeon girl that raised her to fame. In the eyes of the audience, the 25-year-old, with a voice comparable to that of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, became a woman and claimed her right to show herself as such. But the biggest change has not been her age or her musical success, but the chain of personal tragedies she has suffered in a short time.
After going through a terrorist attack, a failed engagement and the accidental overdose death of a loved one, Grande had every right - as she recounts in one of her latest singles, 7 Rings - to become a "sad bitch", but instead she became "a savage." One who has decided to take control of her music, her image, and her relationships. A woman who rejected the title of Lady of the British Empire, awarded by Queen Elizabeth II, because it did not seem right that she should be awarded when the wounds of that attack were still fresh and a singer who said no to the Grammy Awards because they wanted to control the details of his performance. Something that she is no longer willing to accept.
Determination is in his blood. As she told Billboard magazine last December, she always knew that her destiny was music. “When I was six I decided that this was what I was going to do all my life. Point. I knew it was going to be like that, there was not an iota of doubt in my mind, "she said.
She found success in 2009, when she was selected to be part of the Victorius children's program and then in 2013, when she made her leap to music with her first album, Yours Truly. Her career began to grow and little by little she positioned herself as a benchmark for female pop. But her whole life fell apart in May 2017 when a man blew herself up in Manchester just after a concert was over. The attack ended with 22 dead - including several children - and hundreds injured. An event that the interpreter cannot overcome today.
After the tragedy, music became her therapy. Burdened with anxiety and mixed feelings, the singer sought with her album Sweetener to radiate positivism without hiding the pain that influenced her. In The Fader magazine she described the album as her heart "raw with a good beat behind it." In fact, one of the songs, Get well soon (Recover / I will recover soon), is inspired by what happened in Manchester and the aftermath they left behind. A song that says as much with what he sings as with the silence of 40 seconds at the end, which leads to the song lasting 5:22 minutes, a reference to the date of the attack (May 22).
The album was a resounding sales success, breaking multiple streaming records - Spotify's best first week for a female artist - and was voted Best of 2018 by Billboard magazine. But when Grande was in full promotion of it, tragedy knocked on her door again. Her ex-boyfriend, Mac Miller, with whom she had just broken up after two years together, died of an accidental overdose at 26. "I'm so angry, so sad, I don't know what to do," the singer wrote on her Instagram account shortly after. “I am very sorry that I could not fix or take away the pain you had. I really wanted to. You had the sweetest and best soul, with demons that you didn't deserve ”, he added. Soon after, her engagement to Saturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson also faded, and again the singer felt the need to unburden herself.
That is how Thank You, Next, Grande's new album released this Friday, the second in six months, came about. A project written in one week and recorded in two. In her own words on Billboard it was the result of "a lot of feminine energy, champagne, music, laughter and crying." An album that has little of romanticism and a lot of female empowerment, which breaks all expectations and which sums up her new philosophy of life: self-control. “I don't want people to tell me what to do. I don't want to settle for the agenda of most pop stars. I want to handle myself on my own terms from now on, ”he told the same publication. “If I want to go on tour promoting two albums at the same time, I'm going to do it. If I want to release a third album when I'm on tour, I'm going to do it too. (...) I want to be able to do what comes naturally to me, what is authentic and honest. It's the only way I've been able to survive. "
The expectations for the new album have been unheard of. The thunderous success of the single, which bears the same name as the album, was followed by three others: Imagine, Break up with your girlfriend, I'm bored and 7 Rings, the latter a hymn to female friendship that has been in the 1 for two weeks. on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, while Thank You, Next remains in the top 10. But its popularity not only translates into its musical hits, but also its global reach. In recent times, any comment or action by the singer-songwriter is analyzed in detail and has the potential to become news in record time.
She does not care. Unlike other artists who prefer to get away from the jungle that are social networks and keep a low profile to avoid positioning themselves on different topics —especially politicians—, Grande claims not to remain silent. She did so during the racist riots in Charlottesville and after the shooting in Parkland, Florida. She has even gone so far as to speak openly about gun reform, against Donald Trump and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. All in order to make an impact on society. “Not everyone is going to agree with me, but that doesn't mean I'm going to keep my mouth shut and limit myself to singing my songs. I am also a human being who cares about other human beings and I want to use my privileged position to educate people, ”he explained to Elle magazine in July 2018.
Grande has admitted that in her personal life she has "no idea" of what she is doing, but it is clear that she makes up for this uncertainty with a musical career that is far from slowing down. After the album is released, the singer will begin a tour of the United States, Canada and Europe - she will not go through Spain - and will be one of the main stars of the Coachella music festival. "I guess there's not much I'm scared of right now," he tells Billboard. “When life gives you so much shit, your priorities change. I don't care about anything anymore. I just want to be happy, be healthy and make music. "
