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) and Sam & Cat (2013–2014). She subsequently signed with Republic Records in 2011 after the label's executives discovered YouTube videos of her covering songs. Her 1950s doo-wop-influenced pop and R&B debut album, Yours Truly (2013), topped the US Billboard 200 chart, while its lead single, "The Way", charted in the top ten of the US Billboard Hot 100.
Grande's breakthrough second studio album, My Everything (2014), incorporated pop, R&B and EDM sounds and produced the UK number-one singles "Problem" and "Bang Bang". She continued to explore the pop and R&B genres in Dangerous Woman (2016), her third studio album and first of three consecutive number-one albums in the UK. Her trap-infused fourth and fifth studio albums, Sweetener (2018) and Thank U, Next (2019), were both critical and commercial successes. The former won Grande a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, while the latter was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and set a record for the largest streaming week for a pop album. The singles "Thank U, Next", "7 Rings", and "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" made Grande the first solo artist to hold the top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously, the first woman to succeed herself at the top of the UK Singles Chart, and the first act to chart lead singles from each of their first five studio albums in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. With her 2020 collaborations "Stuck with U" and "Rain on Me", she broke the record for the most number-one debuts on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the first artist to have their first four number-one singles debut atop the US charts.
Grande possesses an expansive four-octave vocal range and whistle register. She has received various accolades throughout her career, 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. Time magazine has named Grande one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016 and 2019, and Forbes has included her on their annual list of highest-paid women in music in 2019 and 2020; Billboard has recognized her as Woman of the Year in 2018 and as the most accomplished female artist to debut in the 2010s.
Having amassed billions of streams thus far, she was the most streamed female artist of the 2010s on Spotify and Apple Music and is currently the most followed woman on Spotify and YouTube. Outside of music, Grande is the most-followed female on Instagram and regularly uses her large platform to advocate for gender, racial, and LGBT equality.
