The past two years can be compared to a rollercoaster for singer/songwriter Ariana Grande. Some tragic events include the terrorist attack at her Manchester show, the passing of her late ex-boyfriend Mac Miller due to overdose and soon after, her split with her ex-fiancé, Pete Davidson. The album consists of 12 songs and touches on many topics that are close and personal to her.
“My first impression of Ariana’s new album was like ‘she’s back,’” sophomore political science major Fabiola Alfred said. “I admired that she was being herself, her new self and she’s not ashamed of it.”
According to Billboard, Ariana Grande became the first artist to hold the No. 1, 2 and 3 spots on the billboard hot 100 songs chart simultaneously since The Beatles in 1964, as her new album “Thank U, Next” launches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums tally. The three songs that reign in the top three spots are “7 Rings” at number one, “Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored” at number two, and finally “thank u, next” at number three on the chart.
“’Thank you, next’ has always been something that I have said for like years,” Grande said in an interview on the Zach Sang show. “Putting it into a song makes it very cool like ‘okay, we definitely just closed that chapter.’” Grande continued while talking about her first single on the album with Zach Sang.
The album opens with the song “Imagine.” According to Genius Lyrics, “this song is about unattainable love that is ‘now and forever’ unreachable.” It is rumored that this song talks about the passing of her late ex-boyfriend Mac Miller but has never been confirmed.
“This is my favorite song,” junior education major, Olivia Schiffert, said. “I just really like her voice and I also love the beat of the song. It’s different from other songs that she has done before.”
The next song on the album is “Needy.” This song talks about wanting affection but maybe needing too much. The lyrics “you can go ahead and call me selfish, but after all this damage, I can’t help it” just shows how much she wants love and affection at a tough time in her life like this.
“Fake Smile” is a song about how she is tired of faking a smile when everything really isn’t okay. She walked around with a fake smile for a while due to being in the limelight of being a celebrity and also making sure that her friends, family and fans don’t worry about her too much.
“That’s my favorite song,” senior biology major Dessire Rosario said. “I just love how she is finally starting to come out of her shell and finally say that ‘I’m not okay, but I’m slowly healing over time.’”
Some other honorable mentions from the album include;
- “7 Rings” – the third single from her album after “Imagine” which grew a lot of conspiracy and hype among fans and other artists. For one, there was a lot of drama between her and Soulja Boy after him publicly saying that she “stole” his flow to his hit song “pretty boy swag.” In the same week drama with rapper 2Chainz also appeared as he was claiming that her music video for “7 rings” was inspired by his album “Pretty Girls Like Trap Music.”
- “Ghostin” – According to a recent tweet from Ariana Grande, ‘Ghostin’ is about “feeling badly for the person you’re with because you love somebody else. Feeling badly because he can tell he can’t compare…. and how you should be ghosting him.”
- “Thank U, Next” – The first single from the album which debuted on Nov. 3 2018. It is her post break up song that thanks each of her exes and promotes self love by mentioning herself. You can read more about the song here.
- “In My Head” – In a recent tweet Grande has said that this song is about “being in love with a version of somebody that you’ve created in your head” and “falling for someone that they are not.” While it is rumored that this song may be about ex-fiance Pete Davison, it has not been confirmed by Grande herself.
Lastly, Grande’s newest single from her album “Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored” brought much attention. This song is very different to what fans are used to hearing from her due to the more trap type beat to the song.
Not only is her song crazy, but her music video caused a lot of controversy with a kiss with her love interest’s girlfriend. The actor who plays the boyfriend in her music video has also caught a lot of people attention because he is played by Charles Melton who plays Reggie in hit CW show Riverdale.
