Ariana Grande (born Grande-Butera on June 26, 1993) is an actress and a pop vocalist from Boca-Raton, Florida. She had performed in multiple plays as a child, but didn’t make a major dent in her dream to become an R&B star until being cast as a cheerleader in the Broadway musical 13, earning a National Youth Theatre Association Award for her performance.
Soon after, she was able to land a role in the Nickelodeon hit TV series, Victorious, which propelled her to become a teen idol as her on-screen character seemed to be “very impressionable and easily swayed” but “generally sweet.” From this point on, she was able to garner the fan base that allowed her to create tracks that worked only towards promotion of the show, like “Put Your Hearts Up”.
She would have to wait until August 2012 to see the cancellation of Victorious, which allowed Grande to finally make music her priority. With her life now revolving entirely around this passion, she was able to release her debut album, Yours Truly: the result of a three-year endeavor. She completed the album, originally titled Daydreamin, in June 2013; it was released on August 19, 2013. In September 2013, it debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart, with 138,000 copies sold in its first week, making Grande the first female artist since Ke$ha to have her first album debut atop the charts. It included top 10 hit "The Way" with Mac Miller.
On August 25, 2014, Ariana released her second studio album, My Everything. Selling 166,000 copies in the first week, My Everything also debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. “The Honeymoon Tour” kicked off in February of 2015, and further promoted the album. It included top 10 hits "Problem" with Iggy Azalea, "Break Free" with Zedd, and "Love Me Harder" with The Weeknd.
On October 30, 2015, Ariana released “Focus.” The song was originally intended to be the lead single for Grande’s 3rd album, however, it was removed in favor for the album’s title track. The song made an appearance on the Japanese release of the album. On May 20, 2016, Grande released Dangerous Woman, which became her first album to not debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart, rather debuting at No. 2, selling 129,000 copies in the first week. It included top 10 hits "Dangerous Woman" and "Side to Side" with Nicki Minaj.
On February 3, 2017, Ariana started her second tour, the “Dangerous Woman Tour”, to promote the album. On May 22, 2017, during the Manchester Arena show, Grande’s performance was interrupted by a terrorist bombing. The tragedy killed 22 people and injured almost 800 people, and in June of the same year, Grande organized a benefit concert One Love Manchester to support the victims and their families.
Over two years later, Grande released her fourth studio album, Sweetener, on August 17, 2018. The album became her third No. 1 album, and it included top 10 hits "no tears left to cry" and "God is a woman."
On February 8, 2019, only six months after releasing Sweetener, Ariana released her fifth studio album, thank u, next, which included the Billboard No. 1 hits “7 Rings” and “thank u, next”, and the top five hit, “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored.” It's her most acclaimed album to date. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
