Ariana Grande

Background

Ariana Grande-Butera born June 26, 1993 is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Born of Italian heritage in Florida, she began her career in 2008 in the Broadway musical 13, before playing the role of Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon television series Victorious and in the spinoff Sam and Cat. She has also appeared in other theatre and television roles and has lent her voice to animated television and films. Grande's music career began in 2011 with the soundtrack Music from Victorious. Since then, Grande has earned three number-one albums on the US Billboard 200 with Yours Truly, My Everything, and Sweetener. She has also attained a number-two album with Dangerous Woman.

Her upcoming fifth studio album Thank U, Next is expected to be released in 2018. Furthermore, Grande has earned six top-five singles on the US Billboard Hot 100, including "Problem", "Break Free", "Bang Bang", "Side to Side", "No Tears Left to Cry", and the
chart-topping "Thank U, Next".

Grande is the first artist in the history of the chart to have the lead singles from each of their first four albums debut within the top-ten, and in 2014, she continuously charted inside the top-ten for 34 weeks and had the most top 10 singles of any artist that year. She has previously embarked on The Honeymoon Tour and Dangerous Woman Tour.

Critics have compared Grande's wide vocal range to that of Mariah Carey. Her accolades include three American Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards and four Grammy Award nominations. All three of her albums have been certified platinum by the RIAA. She has supported a range of charities and has a large following on social media. In 2016, Time named Grande one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual list. In 2018, Billboard named her Woman of the Year.

Early Life

Grande began working on songs for the album with Pharrell Williams in 2016, but "the events in Manchester gave a hard reset to the project's expectations". On April 20, 2018, Grande released "No Tears Left to Cry" as the lead single from her upcoming fourth studio album, together with a music video for the song. The song debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, where it became Grande's ninth single to reach the top ten in the United States and made Grande the only artist to have debuted the first single from each of her first four albums in the top ten of the Hot 100. She performed "No Tears Left to Cry" on the Tonight Show on May 1, where she revealed the title of the album, Sweetener. The album was made available for pre-order on June 20, 2018, along with the promotional single " The Light Is Coming", featuring rapper Nicki Minaj.vv The album's second single, "God Is a Woman", was released on July 13, 2018.It peaked at number 8 on the Hot 100 and was Grande's 10th song to reach the top 10 on that chart.The album was released on August 17, 2018. Grande gave four concerts to promote the album, billed as The Sweetener Sessions, at New York City's Irving Plaza, The Vic Theatre in Chicago, Ace Theater in Los Angeles, and KOKO in London between August 20 and September 4, 2018. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has received acclaim from critics. Grande has announced a concert tour, the Sweetener World Tour, scheduled to begin on March 18, 2019, in Albany, New York. The North American leg is expected to run through June.

Dangerous Woman

Grande began her Dangerous Woman Tour in February 2017 in North America and then Europe. Reviewing the concert for Las Vegas Weekly, Ian Caramanzana wrote: "Grande's burly, soulful vibrato and wide range remain the star of her show, and she's at her best when it's just her, a microphone and her band – especially when she performs ... ballads." Jon Pareles of The New York Times called the concert "a show of confidence, prowess and aplomb. Her agile soprano was strong and unconcealed in every song." After Grande's concert at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England, on May 22, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive in the foyer of the arena, causing 23 fatalities and more than 500 injuries.Grande suspended the tour until June 7and held a televised benefit concert, One Love Manchester, on June 4 at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Manchester, helping to raise $23 million to aid the bombing victims and affected families.Grande, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and other artists performed. To recognize her efforts, the City Council named Grande the first honorary citizen of Manchester.The tour resumed in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Oceania. It ended in September 2017, earning more than $71 million and selling over 875,000 tickets.

The same year, Grande recorded the title track of the soundtrack for the 2017 live-action remake of Disney's Beauty and the Beast with John Legend. She also appeared in an Apple Music Carpool Karaoke episode, singing musical theatre songs with Seth MacFarlane, and became a brand ambassador for Reebok.Even without releasing a new album in 2017, Grande became Billboard's Female Artist of the Year". Grande has released five fragrances with Luxe Brands since 2015. They had grossed over $150 million in global sales by 2017.

Sweetener and Thank U, Next

In November 2018, Grande announced her upcoming fifth studio album will be titled Thank U, Next via her social media,
and also revealed that a song of the same name will feature on it. She also revealed that there are no features on the album.
The song titled "Thank U, Next" was released on November 3 as a lead single. The song debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Grande's first number one single in the United States.

It quickly became certified platinum in the United States. She has also teased a song called "Needy".On November 27, 2018, Grande announced that she was collaborating with YouTube for a special project which later was revealed to be a limited docuseries. The four-part series titled Ariana Grande: Dangerous Woman Diaries, will not only go behind the scenes of Grande's Dangerous Woman tour but will also spotlight on her professional life during the tour while featuring concert performances, unseen highlights from the tour, moments from the One Love Manchester tribute concert and an in-depth look into the making of her fourth album, Sweetener. The series is set debut on November 29, 2018.