The countdown is on: just ten days until the release of Ariana Grande’s seventh album, Eternal Sunshine. As a tribute to my favorite artist’s new musical chapter and to alleviate the recent turmoil of work, I’m dedicating a ten-day series on my blog to my top ten personal Ariana Grande songs.
My musical preferences have subtly evolved over time. Songs that once seemed mundane or whose acclaim puzzled me have, with time, revealed their allure. This transformation echoes a perspective shared by a friend: “If a celebrated work’s acclaim seems unwarranted, it’s likely you were not its intended audience—at least, not yet.”
The list of top ten songs is arranged chronologically, beginning with her earliest work today:
The Way (feat. Mac Miller)
This track is a fusion of R&B and pop, characterized by its retro vibe, light and buoyant beats, and an array of sampling chords and synthesizers. It was the standout single from Ariana Grande’s debut album Yours Truly, climbing to number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and securing the top spot on iTunes. The song starts with Ariana’s solo version before Mac Miller (who was romantically involved with Grande at the time) steps in, adding a rap verse while Ariana gracefully steps back.
The journey behind the song is profoundly inspiring and has significantly influenced my perspective. At 14, Ariana Grande faced numerous challenges in her quest to create R&B music, akin to her idols Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. She was advised to first gain exposure through TV shows to establish a platform before venturing into R&B music. She did that: ‘I booked that TV show (Victorious), and then I was like, OK, now can I make music?’ While Victorious marched on, Grande recorded music in her free time and Yours Truly took three years to land. Reflecting on the music video for “The Way”:
We had no budget, didn’t even tell the label that we’re gonna do it. Made it ourselves. We said like, “Listen, we have a camera we have a projector. We have music, we have balloons we got dancers, Brian and Scott.
We didn’t have any budget and anything and we just made it, showed it to the label after that. Because before they brought it up to me, were like, we need to shoot a music video. And I was like oh yeah we already did it. Here you go, what do you think. And they were like this is so fun…
And that’s the way you get things done, at least sometimes. This anecdote showcase the proactive and determined attitude that sometimes is the key to achieving one’s goals.
And the embellishments that pushed the song into the top ten is the outro after Miller’s verse 3, where a major third jump of Grande from the original melody exemplifies the song into a next level.