Ariana Grande-Butera (; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Born in Boca Raton, Florida, Grande began her career in the 2008 Broadway musical 13. She rose to prominence for her role as Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon television series Victorious (2010–2013). She signed with Republic Records in 2011 after the label's executives discovered YouTube videos of her covering songs. Her debut album, Yours Truly (2013), was commercially successful entering the US Billboard 200 chart at number one, while its lead single, "The Way", debuted within the top ten of the US Billboard Hot 100.
Grande gained more prominence with multi-platinum albums My Everything (2014) and Dangerous Woman (2016), with the former scoring the UK number-one singles "Problem" and "Bang Bang". Her Grammy Award winning fourth studio album, Sweetener (2018), was critically acclaimed while her next record, Thank U, Next (2019), was nominated for Album of the Year. With the singles "Thank U, Next", "7 Rings", and "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored", she became the first solo artist to hold the top-three spots on the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously, while with later becoming the first female artist to succeed herself at the top of the UK Singles Chart. Additionally, she is holding the record for the most number one debuts, as well as the only artist to have their first four number one songs debut at the top. She is also the only artist to have the lead singles from each of their first five studio albums debut within the top ten in the US.
Grande has received various accolades, including one Grammy Award, one Brit Award, two Billboard Music Awards, three American Music Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards, and eight Guinness World Records. She has amassed billions of streams on platforms like YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music, and is the most followed female on the former two, while being the most listened to female on the latter. In February 2019, she became the most followed woman on Instagram. Time named Grande as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016 and 2019, while Forbes included her in their annual list of highest-earning women in music in 2019. Billboard recognized her as the "Woman of the Year" in 2018, and declared her the most accomplished female singer to debut in the 2010s, in 2019.
