Ariana Grande

Early life

Ariana Grande-Butera was born on June 26, 1993, in Boca Raton, Florida. She is the daughter of Joan Grande, the Brooklyn-born CEO of Hose-McCann Communications, a manufacturer of marine communications equipment owned by the Grande family since 1964, and Edward Butera, a graphic design firm owner in Boca Raton. Grande is of Sicilian and Abruzzese Italian ancestry. She has an older half-brother, Frankie Grande, who is an entertainer and producer. Her family moved from New York to Florida before her birth, and her parents separated when she was eight or nine years old. Grande had a close relationship with her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Grande. At age eight, she sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Florida Panthers's home game against the Chicago Blackhawks on January 16, 2002.

As a young child, Grande performed with the Fort Lauderdale Children's Theater, playing her first role as the title character in the musical Annie. She also performed in their productions of The Wizard of Oz and Beauty and the Beast. At age eight, she performed at a karaoke lounge on a cruise ship and with orchestras such as South Florida's Philharmonic, Florida Sunshine Pops, and Symphonic Orchestras. During this time, she attended the Pine Crest School and later North Broward Preparatory.

Career

2008–2013: Career beginnings and Nickelodeon

When she first arrived in Los Angeles, California, to meet with her managers, she expressed a desire to record an R&B album: "I was like, 'I want to make an R&B album.' They were like 'Um, that's a helluva goal! Who is going to buy a 14-year-old's R&B album?!'" In 2008, Grande was cast as cheerleader Charlotte in the Broadway musical 13.

Grande was cast in the Nickelodeon television show Victorious along with 13 co-star Elizabeth Gillies in 2009. In the sitcom, set at a performing arts high school, she played the "adorably dimwitted" Cat Valentine. She had to dye her hair red every other week for the role, which damaged it. The show premiered in March 2010 to the second-largest audience for a live-action series in Nickelodeon, with 5.7 million viewers. The role helped propel Grande to teen idol status, but she was more interested in a music career, saying that acting is "fun, but music has always been first and foremost with me".

After the first season of Victorious wrapped, Grande wanted to focus on her music career and began working on her debut album in August 2010. The second season premiered in April 2011 to 6.2 million viewers, becoming the show's highest-rated episode. In May 2011, Grande appeared in Greyson Chance's video for the song "Unfriend You" from his album Hold On 'til the Night (2011), portraying his ex-girlfriend. She made her first musical appearance on the track "Give It Up" from the Victorious soundtrack in August 2011. While filming Victorious, Grande made several recordings of herself singing covers of songs by Adele, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey and uploaded them to YouTube. A friend of Monte Lipman, chief executive officer (CEO) of Republic Records, came across one of the videos. Impressed by her vocals, he sent the links to Lipman, who signed her to a recording contract. Grande voiced the title role in the English dub of the Spanish-language animated film Snowflake, the White Gorilla in November 2011. From 2011 to 2013, she was cast in the role of fairy Princess Diaspro in the Nickelodeon revival of Winx Club.

In December 2011, Grande released her first promotional single, "Put Your Hearts Up", recorded for a debut studio album that was never issued. She later disowned the track for its bubblegum pop sound, saying she had no interest in recording music of that genre. The song was later certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). On a second soundtrack, Victorious 2.0, released as an extended play (EP) on June 5, 2012, she supplied vocals as part of the show's cast for the song "5 Fingaz to the Face". The third and final soundtrack, Victorious 3.0, was released on November 6, 2012, which featured a duet by Grande and Victoria Justice titled "L.A. Boyz", with an accompanying music video being released shortly after. In December 2012, Grande collaborated on the single version of "Popular Song", a duet with British singer and songwriter Mika.

2013–2015: Yours Truly and My Everything

In early 2013, Grande signed with talent manager Scooter Braun and his firm SB Projects. Grande released her debut album, Yours Truly, on August 30, 2013. A pop and R&B record influenced by 1950s doo-wop, it debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 albums chart, with 138,000 copies sold in its first week. Yours Truly also debuted in the top ten in several other countries, including Australia, the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Its lead single, "The Way", featuring Pittsburgh rapper Mac Miller, debuted at number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100, eventually peaking at number nine for two weeks. Grande was later sued by Minder Music for copying the line "What we gotta do right here is go back, back in time" from the 1972 song "Troglodyte (Cave Man)" by the Jimmy Castor Bunch. The album's second single, "Baby I", was released in July. Its third single, "Right There", featuring Detroit rapper Big Sean, was released in August 2013. They respectively peaked at numbers 21 and 84 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Grande recorded the duet "Almost Is Never Enough" with Nathan Sykes of the Wanted, which was released as a promotional single in August 2013. She also joined Canadian singer Justin Bieber on his Believe Tour for three shows and kicked off her own headlining mini-tour, the Listening Sessions. At the 2013 American Music Awards, she won the award for New Artist of the Year. She released a four-song Christmas EP—Christmas Kisses—in December and received the Breakthrough Artist of the Year award from the Music Business Association, recognizing her achievements throughout 2013. By January 2014, Grande had begun recording her second studio album with singer-songwriter Ryan Tedder and record producers Benny Blanco and Max Martin. The same month, she earned the Favorite Breakout Artist award at the People's Choice Awards 2014. In March 2014, Grande sang at the White House concert, "Women of Soul: In Performance at the White House". The following month, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama invited Grande again to perform at the White House for the Easter Egg Roll event.

Grande released her second studio album, My Everything, on August 25, 2014; it debuted atop the US Billboard 200 with 169,000 copies and received generally positive reviews. She explored EDM, dance-pop, and electro genres on the album. Its lead single, "Problem" featuring Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, and became Grande's first number-one on the UK and New Zealand singles charts. Selling 438,000 digital copies in its opening week, it achieved the highest first-week sales numbers of 2014 and made Grande the youngest woman, at 20 years old, to debut with over 400,000 downloads at the time. "Problem" became 2014's eighth-best-selling digital single globally, with over 9 million copies sold, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The album's second single, "Break Free", featuring German musician and producer Zedd, was released on July 3 and reached number four in the United States. She performed the song as the opening of the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards and won Best Pop Video for "Problem". Grande and Nicki Minaj provided guest vocals on "Bang Bang", the lead single from Jessie J's album Sweet Talker, which peaked at number one in the UK and at number three in the US. The song was added to the deluxe version of My Everything, serving as the third single from the album. It was certified diamond by the RIAA in May 2024, for selling over 10 million units in the US; it marked the first all-female collaboration to achieve the certification. With the singles "Problem", "Break Free", and "Bang Bang", Grande became the second female artist in chart history, joining Adele, with three top-ten singles simultaneously listed on the Billboard Hot 100 as a lead artist.

2015–2018: Dangerous Woman and Sweetener

Grande began recording songs for her third studio album, Dangerous Woman, originally titled Moonlight, in 2015. In October of that year, she released the single "Focus", initially intended as the lead single from the album; the song debuted at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100. The next month American singer Who Is Fancy released the single "Boys Like You", which features Ariana Grande and Meghan Trainor. She was featured in the remix version of "Over and Over Again", a song by English singer Nathan Sykes from his solo debut studio album, Unfinished Business, which was released in January 2016. In March 2016, Grande released "Dangerous Woman" as the lead single from the retitled album of the same name. The single debuted at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first artist to have the lead single from each of their first three albums debut in the top ten. The same month, Grande appeared as host and musical guest of Saturday Night Live, where she performed "Dangerous Woman" and debuted the promotional single "Be Alright", which charted at number 43 on the Billboard Hot 100. Grande garnered positive reviews for her appearance on the show, including praise for her impressions of various singers, some of which she had done on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Grande released Dangerous Woman on May 20, 2016, which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. It also debuted at number two in Japan, and at number one in several other markets, including Australia, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and the UK. Mark Savage, writing for BBC News, called the album "a mature, confident record". In August, Grande released a third single from the album, "Side to Side", featuring rapper Nicki Minaj, her eighth top ten entry on the Hot 100, which peaked at number four on that chart. Dangerous Woman was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album and the title track for Best Pop Solo Performance. Aside from music, Grande played Penny Pingleton in the NBC television broadcast Hairspray Live!, which aired in December 2016. Grande recorded the title track of the soundtrack for the 2017 live-action remake of Disney's 1991 animated film Beauty and the Beast. The recording was released as a duet with American singer John Legend in February 2017. The same month, Grande embarked on her third concert tour, the Dangerous Woman Tour, to promote the album.

On May 22, 2017, her concert at the Manchester Arena was the target of a suicide bombing. An Islamic extremist, motivated by Muslim casualties from US intervention in the Syrian Civil War, detonated a shrapnel-laden homemade bomb as people were leaving the arena. The Manchester Arena bombing, which occurred at the City Room, caused 22 deaths and injured over a thousand more. Grande suspended the remainder of the tour and held a televised benefit concert, One Love Manchester, on June 4, helping to raise $23 million to aid the bombing's victims and affected families. The concert featured performances from Grande, as well as Liam Gallagher, Robbie Williams, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and other artists. To recognize her efforts, the Manchester City Council named Grande the first honorary citizen of Manchester and, later in the year, she was reported to have declined an honorary UK damehood. The tour resumed on June 7 in Paris and ended in September 2017.

2018–2019: Thank U, Next

In November 2018, Grande released the single "Thank U, Next" and announced her fifth studio album of the same name. The song debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Grande's first chart-topping single in the United States, spending seven non-consecutive weeks atop. Since then, it has been certified eight-times platinum in the United States; the song's music video broke records for most-watched music video on YouTube within 24 hours of release and fastest Vevo video to reach 100 million views on YouTube, at the time. On Spotify, it became the fastest song to reach 100 million streams (11 days) and most-streamed song by a female artist in a 24-hour period, with 9.6 million streams, before being surpassed by her own "7 Rings" (nearly 15 million streams). "Thank U, Next" was the most-streamed song by a woman globally on Apple Music in 2019.

Grande released, in collaboration with YouTube, a four-part docuseries titled Ariana Grande: Dangerous Woman Diaries. It shows behind the scenes and concert footage from Grande's Dangerous Woman Tour, including moments from the One Love Manchester concert, and follows her professional life during the tour and the making of Sweetener. The series debuted on November 29, 2018. By the end of the year, she became the most-streamed female artist on Spotify, and was named Billboard's Woman of the Year. In January 2019, it was announced that Grande would be headlining the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, where she became the youngest and the fourth female artist ever to headline the festival. Grande brought a number of guest artists to perform with her, including NSYNC, P. Diddy, Nicki Minaj, and Justin Bieber. Her set received critical acclaim.

Grande's second single from Thank U, Next, "7 Rings", was released on January 18, 2019, and debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 issue dated February 2, becoming her second single in a row (and overall) to top the charts. It made Grande the third female artist with multiple number-one debuts after Mariah Carey (3) and Britney Spears (2) and fifth artist overall after Justin Bieber and Drake. Spending eight non-consecutive weeks at the summit, it became Grande's most successful song on the chart and was certified diamond in the US. "7 Rings" became 2019's fifth-best-selling song globally, and one of the best-selling digital singles worldwide. Thank U, Next was released on February 8, 2019, and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 while receiving acclaim from critics. The album garnered Grande's largest sales week of all time in the United States (360,000 album-equivalent units). Her fourth number-one album, and second in less than six months, it marked the shortest gap between number-one albums for a woman at the time. Thank U, Next broke records for the largest streaming week for a pop album and for a female album in the US, with 307 million on-demand streams. At the time, it was the only non-hip hop title among the twenty largest US album streaming weeks, at number eight. The album also achieved the largest streaming week by a female artist in Canada and the United Kingdom. In June 2020, Thank U, Next was certified double platinum by the RIAA.

2020–2023: Positions

In January 2020, Grande received multiple nominations at the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Awards, including Female Artist of the Year. At the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, Grande performed a medley of "Imagine", "My Favorite Things", "7 Rings", and "Thank U, Next". Her performance was ranked by various publications among the best of the ceremony. Grande received the third-most nominations (5), including her first nods for Album of the Year (Thank U, Next) and Record of the Year ("7 Rings"). She was named by Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter as one of the biggest snubs of the ceremony. Grande and Justin Bieber released a collaboration song titled "Stuck with U" on May 8, 2020; net proceeds from the sales of the song were donated to the First Responders Children's Foundation in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The song debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Grande's third chart-topping single. Alongside Bieber, both artists tied Mariah Carey and Drake for the most songs to debut at number one on the Hot 100; Grande became the first artist to have her first three number ones debut at the top, following "Thank U, Next" and "7 Rings". Grande appeared on Lady Gaga's "Rain on Me", the second single from Gaga's sixth studio album, Chromatica. The song also debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Grande's fourth number-one single and helping her break the record for the most number-one debuts on that chart. It won the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. In 2020, Grande became the highest-earning woman in music on Forbes's 2020 Celebrity 100 list, placing 17th overall with $72 million. At the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, she was nominated for nine awards for both "Stuck with U" (with Bieber) and "Rain on Me" (with Gaga). For the latter, Grande received her third consecutive nomination for Video of the Year. She won four awards, including Song of the Year for "Rain on Me".

Grande's sixth studio album, Positions, was released on October 30, 2020. A trap-infused R&B and pop record centered around themes of sexual intimacy and romantic devotion, it was met with generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised Grande's vocal performance. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 174,000 units, becoming Grande's fifth number-one album. Her third chart-topping album in two years and three months, it marked the fastest accumulation of three number-one albums by a woman at that time. Following its vinyl LPs release in April 2021, Positions achieved the largest vinyl sales week (32,000) by a female artist since MRC Data's inauguration in 1991, at that time. Elsewhere, the album reached number one in various countries including Argentina, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The eponymous lead single was released on October 23. It debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Grande's fifth chart-topping single and breaking numerous records. Grande became the first artist to have five number-one debuts on the Hot 100 and the first to have their first five number-ones debut at the top. "Positions" became her third US number-one single in 2020 following "Stuck with U" and "Rain on Me", making Grande the first artist since Drake in 2018 to have three number-one singles in a single calendar year and the first female artist to do so since Rihanna and Katy Perry in 2010. She also achieved the feat for the fastest accumulation of three Hot 100 chart-topping debuts (five months and two weeks). "Positions" topped the Pop Airplay chart for seven weeks, surpassing "7 Rings" (six weeks) as Grande's longest-running number-one on the chart. Debuting at the summit of Billboard's Global 200 and Global Excl. US charts, it was the first song to simultaneously debut atop both Billboard Global charts; Grande became the first US-born artist to top the Global Excl. US survey. "Positions" also debuted atop the UK singles chart, extending Grande's record as the female act with the most number-one single debuts (seven). Spending six consecutive weeks atop the chart, it tied Grande's own "Thank U, Next" as her longest-running number-one song in the UK. Elsewhere, the single topped the charts in multiple countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand.

2024–present: Eternal Sunshine, Wicked, and Petal

Grande's seventh studio album, titled Eternal Sunshine, was released on March 8, 2024. It was preceded by its lead single, "Yes, And?", released on January 12. The song debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, topped the Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. US charts for two weeks, and was followed by a remix featuring Mariah Carey on February 16. The second single, "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)", was released in tandem with the album. Grande's first album in over three years, Eternal Sunshine marked her first major foray into dance and house music. Met with universal acclaim, critics dubbed it one of her most mature and sophisticated records yet. Both the album and its second single debuted atop the Billboard 200 and the Hot 100 respectively, achieving Grande's third-largest sales week (227,000 units) and making her the woman with the most Hot 100 number-one debuts (7). Elsewhere, the album debuted at number one in thirteen countries, including Australia, Canada, and the UK. With Eternal Sunshine and Thank U, Next, Grande became the first woman to have two albums produce multiple number-one single debuts in the US. It also marked her first instance of reaching the top of both the Billboard Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts. Topping the Pop Airplay chart for two weeks, "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" marked Grande's tenth number-one. On May 6, 2024, Grande performed at the Met Gala and was joined on stage by Cynthia Erivo to close out her performance. "The Boy Is Mine", which reached the top 20 on the Hot 100, was issued as the third Eternal Sunshine single in June; a remix featuring Brandy and Monica followed later that month. On August 22, 2024, Grande released a reissue of her second studio album, My Everything, for the tenth anniversary of the record. Two extended editions of Eternal Sunshine containing the pre-released single remixes, guest vocals from Troye Sivan, and live versions of several tracks, were surprise released in March and October 2024. Grande appeared as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on March 9, 2024, to promote Eternal Sunshine. She featured on the remix to "Sympathy Is a Knife" on Charli XCX's remix album Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat, released on October 11, 2024. On the Las Culturistas podcast, Grande acknowledged that she would likely scale back her pop music output compared to earlier in her career, shifting her focus more towards acting. Eternal Sunshine was ranked as 2024's thirteenth-best-selling and ninth-most-streamed album globally by the IFPI.

At the 67th Annual Grammy Awards, Grande was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album (Eternal Sunshine), Best Pop Duo/Group Performance ("The Boy Is Mine" remix), and Best Dance Pop Recording ("Yes, And?"). Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead, a reissue of Eternal Sunshine, was released on March 28, 2025. Grande starred as the protagonist Peaches in the accompanying short film Brighter Days Ahead, which she directed and wrote with Christian Breslauer; it was released on the same day. Her directorial debut, the short film won the Video of the Year award at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards. With the release of the reissue, Eternal Sunshine became Grande's longest-running number one album in the US (three weeks). Aided by Brighter Days Ahead, the album returned to the top of the charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, over a year after its release. The bonus track "Twilight Zone" was released as the reissue's lead single in April 2025, reaching the top ten on the Billboard Global 200 and the UK singles chart. Later that month, Grande featured on Jeff Goldblum and the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra's jazz album Still Blooming for a rendition of the song "I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)". She and Mariah Carey joined Barbra Streisand on "One Heart, One Voice" for Streisand's album The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two, released on June 27, 2025. While describing the three as "the holy trinity of glorious sound", Melissa Ruggieri of USA Today called the track an "otherwise generic ballad [that] showcases a trio steeped in restraint".

Artistry

Influences

Grande grew up listening mainly to urban pop and 1990s music. She credited Gloria Estefan with inspiring her to pursue a music career after Estefan saw and complimented Grande's performance on a cruise ship when she was eight years old. Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston are her primary vocal influences: "I love Mariah Carey. She is literally my favorite human being on the planet. And of course Whitney [Houston] as well. As far as vocal influences go, Whitney and Mariah pretty much cover it." Grande was also influenced vocally by Destiny's Child, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera, and Madonna. She reflected on her childhood by posting videos of herself singing songs from Dion's 1997 album Let's Talk About Love on her social media. Grande credits Madonna with "pav[ing] the way for me and also every other female artist" and admitted to being "obsessed with her entire discography".

Musically, Grande admires India Arie because her "music makes me feel like everything is going to be okay", loves Brandy Norwood's songs because "her riffs are incredibly on point", and praised Imogen Heap's "intricate" song structure. She named Heap in particular as her favorite musician, songwriter, and producer of all time. Grande also cited Judy Garland as a childhood influence, admiring her ability to tell "a story when she sings". Ahead of the release of her debut album, Grande said that its sound was inspired by Carey, Fergie, Heap, and Houston. Music producer and collaborator Savan Kotecha stated that he and Grande were influenced by Lauryn Hill when creating her fourth album Sweetener and its lead single "No Tears Left to Cry". Kotecha told Variety, "we were listening to Lauryn Hill about chord changes and why we stick to four chords all the time".

Grande expressed admiration for rappers' unconventional music release strategy. She told Billboard, "My dream has always been to be—obviously not a rapper, but, like, to put out music in the way that a rapper does. I feel like there are certain standards that pop women are held to that men aren't ... It's just like, 'Bruh, I just want to ... drop [music] the way these boys do." It inspired her to release "Thank U, Next" without any prior announcement, which The Ringer called "more of a Drake move than an Ariana Grande move".

Musical style

Grande's music is generally pop and R&B with elements of EDM, hip hop, and trap, the latter first appearing prominently on her Christmas & Chill extended play. While consistently maintaining pop and R&B tones, she has increasingly incorporated trap into her music as her career has progressed, thanks to her work with record producer Tommy Brown. She has collaborated with Brown on every album thus far and stated that "One of the things I love most about working with Tommy is that none of the beats he plays me ever sound the same." Grande learned how to sound engineer and produce her own vocals because she "love[s] being hands on" with every project, revealing that rapper Mac Miller first taught her how to use the digital audio workstation Pro Tools. Collaborator Justin Tranter remarked that he felt inspired seeing how involved Grande is in creating her music "from the writing to the vision to the storytelling and to even engineering and comping her own vocals". She has co-written songs addressing a wide variety of themes, such as love, sex, wealth, breakups, independence, empowerment, self-love and moving on from the past.

Grande's debut album Yours Truly was complimented for recreating the R&B "vibe and feel of the 90s" with the help of songwriter and producer Babyface. Her follow-up record, My Everything, explored EDM and electropop genres. Grande expanded the pop and R&B sound on her third album, Dangerous Woman, which was praised by the Los Angeles Times for integrating elements of different styles, such as reggae-pop ("Side to Side"), dance-pop ("Be Alright"), and guitar-trap fusion ("Sometimes"). Trap-pop was more heavily featured on her fourth and fifth studio albums, Sweetener and Thank U, Next. Elias Leight of Rolling Stone opined that Grande "set her sights on conquering trap, savage basslines and jittery swarms of drum programming" and "embrace[d] the sound of hard-bitten Southern hip-hop" on Sweetener, exploring funk music with themes of love and prosperity. Craig Jenkins of Vulture noted that she embraced trap and hip hop with undertones of R&B on Thank U, Next, with lyrics about breakups, empowerment, and self-love. Her sixth album, Positions, further emphasized the R&B and trap-pop sound of its two predecessors, with lyrics discussing sex and romance.

Voice

Grande has been described as a soprano, possessing a four-octave vocal range and a whistle register. With the release of Yours Truly, critics compared Grande's wide vocal range and music to those of Mariah Carey. Julianne Escobedo Shepherd of Billboard wrote that both Carey and Grande have "the talent to let their vocals do the talking ... that's not where the similarities end. ... Grande is subverting it with cute, comfortable, and on-trend dresses with a feminine slant."

Mark Savage of BBC News named Grande "one of pop's most intriguing and gifted singers" and complimented her "unrivalled vocal control". In The New York Times, Jon Pareles noted that Grande's voice "can be silky, breathy or cutting, swooping through long melismas or jabbing out short R&B phrases; it's always supple and airborne, never forced." Composer and playwright Jason Robert Brown wrote in a 2016 Time magazine article, "[N]o matter how much you are underestimated ... you are going to open your mouth and that unbelievable sound is going to come out. That [...] instrument [...] allows you to shut down every objection and every obstacle."

Grande's enunciation has drawn some criticism, particularly on her earlier recordings. Grande herself has acknowledged this on multiple occasions, admitting in 2015 that pronunciation was something she hoped to improve. However, several critics noted a marked improvement on Eternal Sunshine, with some attributing the clearer diction to her extensive vocal training for Wicked.

Public image

Grande cited Audrey Hepburn as a major style influence in her early career; however, she later found emulating Hepburn's style "a little boring". She also drew inspiration from actresses of the 1950s and 1960s, such as Ann-Margret, Nancy Sinatra, and Marilyn Monroe. Grande's modest look early in her career was described as "age appropriate" in comparison to contemporary artists who grew up in the public eye. Jim Farber of New York's New York Daily News wrote in 2014 that Grande received less attention "for how little she wears or how graphically she moves than for how she sings". That year, she abandoned her earlier style in favor of short skirts and crop tops with knee-high boots in live performances and red carpet events. She also began regularly wearing cat and bunny ears and, subsequently, oversized jackets and hoodies through the late 2010s—the latter articles became largely associated with her persona. Grande later stated that owing to her mental health struggles at the time, she regularly wore variations of the oversized sweatshirt-boots outfit as she preferred to "hide away in something really cozy" and "did not have the mental energy to consider clothing". Grande's style is often imitated by social media influencers and celebrities. After years of dyeing her hair red for her role as Cat Valentine on Nickelodeon, Grande wore extensions as her hair recovered from damage. Anne T. Donahue of MTV News noted that her "iconic" high ponytail has received more attention than her fashion choices.

Although Grande drew criticism for alleged impolite interactions with reporters and fans in 2014, she dismissed the reports as "weird, inaccurate depictions". Rolling Stone wrote: "Some may cry 'diva', but it's also Grande just taking a stand to not allow others to control her image." In July 2015, Grande sparked controversy after being seen on surveillance video in a doughnut shop licking doughnuts that were on display and saying "I hate Americans. I hate America. This is disgusting", referring to a tray of doughnuts. She subsequently apologized, saying that she is "extremely proud to be an American" and that her comments rather referred to obesity in the United States. She later released a video apology for "behaving poorly". The incident was parodied by The Muppets. Grande herself poked fun at the incident while hosting Saturday Night Live in 2016, saying, "A lot of kid stars end up doing drugs, or in jail, or pregnant, or get caught licking a doughnut they didn't pay for." In 2020, she admitted to refraining from interviews for a while out of fear of being labeled a "diva" and that her words would be misconstrued.

With a large following on social media, Grande is one of the most influential celebrities on the Internet. As of August 2026, she is the third-most-subscribed female solo act and fourth-most-subscribed woman on YouTube, with over 58 million subscribers. Her channel has received over 31 billion views, and eight of her music videos have over one billion views. Two of them have surpassed two billion views, with her highest-viewed video having over 2.4 billion views. Her Spotify profile has over 115 million followers, making her the eighth-most-followed artist and third-most-followed woman. On Instagram, Grande was the most-followed woman from February 2019 to January 2022 and was the first woman to surpass 200 million followers. She is the sixth-most-followed individual on the platform. In December 2021, Grande deleted her Twitter account, which was one of the most-followed accounts on the platform. She explained that "it started taking [a] toll on my relationship to work. I wanted to prioritize being an artist and having a healthy relationship to my fans and to art."

Recognition

In 2016 and 2019, Grande was named one of Time's 100 most influential people in the world. In 2017, Celia Almeida of the Miami New Times wrote that of all the biggest pop stars of the past 20 years, Grande made the most convincing transition "from ingénue to an independent female artist". Bloomberg News named her the "first pop diva of the streaming generation" in 2020. Regarded as a pop icon, Grande was nicknamed "Princess of Pop" by Guinness World Records. Due to her 2014 song "Santa Tell Me" becoming a 21st-century Christmas standard and having a lasting impact, Grande was dubbed the "Princess of Christmas". The single was ranked number 13 and 19 in Billboard's "100 Best Christmas Songs of All Time" and "Greatest of All Time Holiday Songs".

Grande was also included in Pitchfork's list of "The 200 Most Important Artists of Pitchfork's First 25 Years" for "emerging with music that pushed her artistry further as it asserted a magical trifecta of hope, joy, and a powerhouse voice". Her song "Thank U, Next" was ranked number 137 in Rolling Stone's 2021 revision of their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, while its parent album was ranked number 61 in their "250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century". In 2023, the magazine ranked Grande among the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time, at number 43. The Hollywood Reporter named her as one of its "Platinum Power Players" in music in 2024. In May that year, Katy Perry declared Grande to be "the best singer of our generation". Billboard ranked Grande at number nine on its 2024 "Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century" list, and at number eight on its 2025 list of the "Top 100 Women Artists of the 21st Century". The magazine ranked her album Thank U, Next at number 144 out of 200 on its "Top 200 Billboard 200 Albums of the 21st Century" in 2025.

Recording artists who have cited Grande as an influence or inspiration include Billie Eilish, Breanna Yde, Bryson Tiller, Chappell Roan, Charlie Puth, Giselle of Aespa, Grace VanderWaal, Jungkook of BTS, Lana Del Rey, Madison Beer, Maggie Lindemann, Meghan Trainor, Melanie Martinez, Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast, Sufjan Stevens, Tate McRae, Troye Sivan, and Zara Larsson.

Achievements

Grande has sold over 90 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. All of Grande's studio albums have been certified Platinum or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Her highest-certified album by the RIAA is My Everything, at quadruple Platinum, while her longest-charting album, Thank U, Next, has spent 193 non-consecutive weeks on the chart. Grande has accumulated 16 million albums and 141 million digital singles units as a lead artist in the United States, making her the ninth-highest-certified artist and third-highest-certified female artist on RIAA's Top Artists (Digital Singles) ranking. With 157 million units combined (songs and albums), she is the 16th-highest-certified artist, overall, and fifth-highest among women. In the US, Grande has moved 22.4 million album units, and garnered over 23.6 billion streams across lead artist credits, as of 2023, according to Luminate. With over 36 million certified units, she is among the best-selling female artists in the UK. Two of her songs have been certified diamond by the RIAA: "Bang Bang" (with Jessie J and Nicki Minaj) and "7 Rings".

Having surpassed 98 billion streams globally as of 2021, Grande is one of the most-streamed artists of all time and was the first female artist to surpass 90 billion streams. She was the most-streamed female artist of the 2010s decade on Spotify, being the only woman in the overall top five. She was also the most-streamed female act of the 2010s decade on Apple Music, and was the first woman to reach three billion total streams on the platform. As of June 2026, she is the 12th-most-streamed artist on Apple Music. Grande was the fourth-most-streamed artist—and most-streamed female artist—of the 2010s decade, across audio and video streams in the US, being the only woman and non-rapper in the top five. She became the most-streamed female artist on Spotify in 2020, surpassing Rihanna, and held the record for over two years. As of April 2026, Grande is the second-most-streamed woman and the fifth-most-streamed act on Spotify, with over 69 billion streams across all credits. She is the second woman in the platform's history to surpass 60 billion total streams. Her songs and albums are some of the most-streamed of all time. Grande was the first woman with one and two billion streams with one album, 3.5 billion streams on three separate albums, and the first artist to have five albums with four billion streams on the platform. Grande has 22 songs with over one billion streams on Spotify, making her the female artist with the third-most songs to have achieved the feat; she was the first woman to have 14 and 22 tracks surpass the mark. Six of them have over two billion streams. Seven of her songs were included in Apple Music's "500 Most-Streamed Songs Of All Time" list in 2026, with "7 Rings" and "Thank U, Next" at numbers 19 and 22.

Philanthropy and activism

At age ten, Grande co-founded the South Florida youth singing group Kids Who Care, which performed at charitable fund-raisers and raised over $500,000 in 2007 alone. In 2009, as a member of the charitable organization Broadway in South Africa, she and her brother Frankie performed and taught music and dance to children in Gugulethu, South Africa.

She was featured with Bridgit Mendler and Kat Graham in Seventeen magazine in a 2013 public campaign to end cyberbullying called "Delete Digital Drama". After watching the film Blackfish that year, she urged fans to stop supporting SeaWorld. In September 2014, Grande participated at the charitable Stand Up to Cancer television program, performing her song "My Everything" in memory of her grandfather, who had died of cancer that July. Grande has adopted several rescue dogs as pets and has promoted pet adoption at her concerts. In 2016, she launched a line of lip shades, "Ariana Grande's MAC Viva Glam", with MAC Cosmetics, the profits of which benefited people affected by HIV and AIDS. That same year, Grande and Andrea Martin participated in the Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) gala concert, a benefit for raising funds for impoverished children in Armenia, by encouraging people to buy tickets in support.

In 2015, Grande and Miley Cyrus performed a cover of Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over" as part of Cyrus's "Backyard Sessions" to benefit her Happy Hippie Foundation, which helps homeless and LGBTQ youths. Later that year, Grande headlined the Dance On the Pier event, part of the LGBT Pride Week in New York City. As a feminist, Grande wrote a well-received, "empowering" essay on Twitter decrying the double standard and misogyny in the focus of the press on female musicians' relationships and sex lives instead of "their value as an individual". She has also mentioned having "more to talk about" concerning her music and accomplishments rather than her romantic relationships. That year, Grande joined Madonna to raise funds for orphaned children in Malawi; she and Victoria Monét recorded "Better Days" in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

To aid the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, Grande organized the One Love Manchester concert and re-released "One Last Time" and her live performance of "Over the Rainbow" at the event as charity singles. The total amount raised was reportedly $23 million (more than £17 million), and she received praise for her "grace and strength" in leading the benefit concert. Madeline Roth of MTV wrote that the performance "bolstered courage among an audience that desperately needed it. ... Returning to the stage was a true act of bravery and resilience". In 2017, Vulture writer Dee Lockett ranked the event as the best concert of the year, and Billboard's Mitchell Harrison called Grande a "gay icon" for her LGBTQ-friendly lyrics and performances and "support for the LGBTQ community".

Business and ventures

Products and endorsements

In November 2015, she released a limited edition handbag in collaboration with Coach. In January 2016, she launched a makeup collection with MAC Cosmetics, donating 100% of proceeds to the MAC AIDS Fund. In February 2016, Grande launched a fashion line with Lipsy London. Later that year, she teamed up with Brookstone, using the concept art of artist Wenqing Yan, to design cat ear headphones. In 2017, Grande collaborated with Square Enix to create a character based on herself for the mobile game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. Grande was a limited-time unlockable character as part of the Dangerous Woman Tour event, which also included an orchestral remix of Grande's song "Touch It"; the character, Dangerous Ariana, is a magical support character who uses music-based attacks. In September 2017, she became a brand ambassador for Reebok.

In August 2018, she partnered with American Express for the Sweetener Sessions, a partnership which continued through the Sweetener World Tour in 2019, alongside T-Mobile. In March 2019, she partnered with Starbucks for the launch of the Cloud Macchiato beverage. In May 2019, Grande was announced as the face of Givenchy's fall-winter campaign. The campaign began in July and generated $25.13 million in media impact value. In July 2024, she became the brand ambassador of Swarovski; Grande's first appearance as the face was in the house's holiday campaign in October 2024. Grande collaborated with the company's global creative director Giovanna Battaglia Engelbert on two capsule collections, released in January 2025 and March 2026. Beats, Samsung, Fiat, Reebok, and Guess products have been featured in Grande's music videos. She has appeared in commercials for Macy's, T-Mobile, and Apple, as well as for her own fragrances. Since 2019, Grande has been among the ten highest-paid individuals on Instagram. As of 2025, Grande earns $2 million per sponsored Instagram post.

Fragrances

Grande has released twenty fragrances with Luxe Brands. She launched her debut fragrance, Ari by Ariana Grande, in 2015. In the wake of its success, she launched her third fragrance, Sweet Like Candy, in 2016. Her fifth fragrance, Moonlight, was released in 2017, followed by Cloud (2018), Thank U, Next (2019), R.E.M. (2020), and God Is a Woman (2021), which was later expanded to an Ulta-exclusive body care line in 2022. She then released the duo fragrance collection Mod Vanilla and Mod Blush (2022). It was followed by the collection Lovenotes (2024), which consisted of four region-exclusive fragrances released in North America, Europe, and Australia.

The next fragrances were Cherry Eclipse (2025), released as a R.E.M. Beauty product via Ulta, and Cloud Aurora (2026), the third variant in the Cloud line. The range also includes the limited editions Frankie (2016), Sweet Like Candy Limited Edition (2017), Thank U, Next 2.0, Cloud Intense (both 2021), Cloud Pink (2023), Glinda Bubbly Pink, and Elphaba Enchanted (both 2025), respectively. The last two of these were released in partnership with Universal Products & Experiences, as tie-in products for the film Wicked: For Good (2025), which Grande starred in. The fragrances won the FiFi Award multiple times, most recently with R.E.M. in 2021. In 2022, it was reported that Cloud was the best-selling fragrance at Ulta, selling one bottle every eleven seconds. As of 2024, the scents are developed and manufactured in collaboration with Robertet Group and International Flavors & Fragrances. Grande's fragrance line is the most-searched celebrity offering, with over 4.4 million searches across Google and social media platforms per year, as of 2023. Since its launch in 2015, the franchise has made over $1 billion in retail sales globally.

R.E.M. Beauty

In November 2021, Grande launched her makeup line R.E.M. Beauty, which is distributed at Ulta Beauty as of March 2022. The original line featured 12 core products for lips and eyes, and the range has since been expanded with additional skincare and makeup products. Forbes reported in 2022 that R.E.M. Beauty was one of the brands boosting Ulta's driving gross margin due to strong consumer demand. In May, the line won "Best New Brand" at the Allure Best of Beauty Awards. In February 2023, the brand was launched in 81 Sephora stores and 13 online sites, including across Europe.

Personal life

Grande has said she struggled with hypoglycemia, stating that she recovered from it by changing her eating habits. She has been following a vegan diet since 2013.

Grande developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety after the Manchester Arena bombing; she nearly pulled out of her performance in the 2018 broadcast A Very Wicked Halloween due to anxiety. Grande has also said she has been in therapy for over a decade, having first seen a mental health professional shortly after her parents' divorce. Raised Catholic, she left the church during the pontificate of Benedict XVI (c. 2013), opposing its stance on homosexuality and stating that her half-brother Frankie is gay. Grande said that she and Frankie later visited a Kabbalah Centre, and that they both "really had a connection with it". Several of her songs, such as "Break Your Heart Right Back", are supportive of LGBT rights. She has also been labeled "an advocate for a sex-positive attitude".

Politics

In November 2019, Grande endorsed Bernie Sanders's second presidential bid. She endorsed Joe Biden for the 2020 presidential election and Kamala Harris for the 2024 presidential election.

In June 2025, amid ICE enforcement operations in Los Angeles, Grande wrote on Instagram that she was "deeply upset about these violent deportations" and that "LA simply wouldn't exist without immigrants", sharing ACLU resources on immigrant rights. At the 83rd Golden Globes on January 11, 2026, Grande wore an "ICE Out" pin as part of a coordinated campaign in response to the killing of Renée Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Later that month, she promoted a nationwide protest against ICE on her Instagram Story, urging followers to participate in the "ICE Out Nationwide Shutdown" on January 30.

In June 2026, the White House used a snippet of Grande's song "Bye" in a video promoting ICE on TikTok. She commented on the post: "Please do not ever use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense." The White House later told US media: "What's actually barbaric, inhumane, and heinous are the criminal illegal ‌aliens ⁠who have injured and murdered innocent American citizens." Shortly after, Grande's song was removed from the video.

Legal dispute

In late July 2026, it was reported by multiple media outlets that Grande had sued hackers who she alleges "have stolen unreleased music, as well as private photos and video footage, and sold them online". As reported by Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, it is alleged that the hackers accessed the online accounts of various people working with Grande, leading to the leaking of 45 songs in 2023 alone, and that the stolen assets were sold on the dark web. Some of the stolen assets include Grande's unreleased tracks "Fantasize", "That Bitch Is Mine", and "White Tee". According to The Guardian, Grande filed the lawsuit in a Los Angeles court on July 27.

Relationships

Grande's personal relationships have been widely scrutinized by the public. Some of her former lovers were mentioned by name in the song "Thank U, Next". She dated her 13 co-star Graham Phillips for three years. From August 2012 to August 2014, Grande was in an on-again, off-again relationship with Australian YouTuber Jai Brooks. She briefly dated English singer Nathan Sykes during their separation, and then dated rapper Big Sean for eight months. Grande was in a year-long relationship with Ricky Alvarez, who was one of her backup dancers on the Honeymoon Tour.

After recording "The Way" in 2012, Grande began dating rapper Mac Miller in 2016. She was prominently featured on his fourth album, The Divine Feminine (2016), including its third single, "My Favorite Part". By May 2018, their relationship had ended and Grande entered a whirlwind romance with comedian Pete Davidson. They got engaged in June, after a few weeks of dating, while a song titled after and inspired by Davidson was featured on Sweetener. That September, Miller died from an accidental drug overdose; Grande expressed grief over his death on social media and called him her "dearest friend". She and Davidson called off their engagement and ended their relationship the following month.

Grande began dating real estate agent Dalton Gomez in January 2020. Their relationship, while mostly private, was made public in May 2020, in the music video of her and Justin Bieber's charity single "Stuck with U". Grande announced their engagement on December 20, 2020, after 11 months of dating. On May 15, 2021, they married in a private ceremony at her home in Montecito, California. Her wedding pictures became the second-most-liked Instagram post and most-liked Instagram post featuring pictures of people at the time, with over 25 million likes. Grande and Gomez separated on February 20, 2023, and simultaneously filed for divorce that September due to "irreconcilable differences". They agreed on a divorce settlement in October, which was finalized in March 2024. Shortly after Grande's separation from Gomez was confirmed in July 2023, it was also confirmed that she had begun dating her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater. They separated in 2026, and Grande later rekindled her relationship with Ricky Alvarez.

Discography

Yours Truly (2013)

My Everything (2014)

Dangerous Woman (2016)

Sweetener (2018)

Thank U, Next (2019)

Positions (2020)

Eternal Sunshine (2024)

Petal (2026)

Live performances and tours

Tours

The Listening Sessions (2013)

The Honeymoon Tour (2015)

Dangerous Woman Tour (2017)

Sweetener World Tour (2019)

The Eternal Sunshine Tour (2026)

The Sweetener Sessions (2018)

Justin Bieber – Believe Tour (2013)