Ariana Grande - Thank U Next

Ariana Grande-Butera ( AR-ee-AH-nə GRAHN-day byuu-TAIR-ə; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Regarded as a pop icon and an influential figure in popular music, she is noted for her four-octave vocal range and her signature use of the whistle register. Grande began her career at age 15 by appearing in the Broadway musical 13 (2008). She rose to prominence for her performance as Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon television series Victorious (2010–2013) and its spin-off series Sam & Cat (2013–2014). She signed with Republic Records in 2011. Grande's debut studio album, Yours Truly (2013), incorporated retro-pop and R&B elements and yielded the successful single "The Way". My Everything (2014), her second album, experimented with EDM and contained the internationally successful singles "Problem", "Break Free", and the RIAA diamond-certified "Bang Bang". Grande further explored pop and R&B with her third album Dangerous Woman (2016), which solidified her critical and commercial success. Personal struggles influenced Grande's trap-infused fourth and fifth albums, Sweetener (2018) and Thank U, Next (2019). The former won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, while the latter broke several streaming records and was nominated for Album of the Year. Thank U, Next garnered two Billboard Hot 100 number-one songs with its title track and "7 Rings", and made Grande the first solo artist to simultaneously occupy the top three positions on the chart along with Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored. She broke the record for the most number-one debuts in Hot 100 history with the title track of her trap-influenced sixth album, Positions (2020), and the collaborations "Stuck with U" with Justin Bieber and "Rain on Me" with Lady Gaga, the latter of which won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. After a musical hiatus, Grande ventured into dance music on her seventh album, Eternal Sunshine (2024), which received critical acclaim and produced the number-one singles "Yes, And?" and "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)". She returned to acting with the political satire Don't Look Up (2021). Among the world's best-selling music artists, Grande has sold over 90 million records worldwide and 131 million certified units in the US; all of her studio albums have been certified platinum or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). With over 98 billion streams globally, she is the most-streamed female act as of 2021 and the most-streamed female act of the 2010s on Spotify and Apple Music; on the former platform, she is the second-most streamed female artist as of 2024 and has the most songs with a billion streams for a woman, with 16. Her various accolades include two Grammy Awards, one Brit Award, two Billboard Music Awards, three American Music Awards, ten MTV Video Music Awards, and 36 Guinness World Records. She also has a large social media following, being the sixth-most-followed individual on Instagram and one of the most-subscribed and most-followed musicians on YouTube and Spotify. Grande was named Woman of the Year (2018) and the most successful female artist to debut in the 2010s by Billboard, and one of the greatest vocalists of all time by Rolling Stone. She featured in listicles such as Time 100 (2016 and 2019), Forbes Celebrity 100 (2019–2020), and was ranked the highest-paid female musician of 2020 by Forbes. Outside of music and film, Grande has worked with many charitable organizations and advocates for animal rights, mental health, and gender, racial, and LGBT equality. Her business ventures include R.E.M. Beauty, a cosmetics brand launched in 2021, and a fragrance line that has earned over $1 billion in global retail sales.