Ariana Grande may be in her musical theatre-slash-beauty empire era right now, but fans haven’t forgotten about the Nickelodeon child star-turned-global pop phenomenon and her record-breaking music career. Across six acclaimed albums, Ariana has become one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
It all started with Yours Truly, though (technically, it started with “Put Your Hearts Up”, but Ariana, and thus we, don’t talk about that) – her debut album filled with do-wop piano pop inflected with 90s R&B that moved the artist away from Cat Valentine and let us get to know the sweet and flirty artist without the signature fiery red hair of her character. To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the record, we’ve ranked all of her albums.
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6. Positions
It was the middle of the pandemic, and Ariana was feeling horny af. But rather than channelling that energy into a short-lived Onlyfans career or living vicariously through Normal People like the rest of us, she released her most sexual album yet, the aptly named Positions. After “shut up” opens the album by shutting down the pity she’s faced in the past, the rest is loved-up ruminations that feature her most R-rated lyrics to date. Throughout its title track, “34+35”, “my hair”, and “nasty”, she sings candidly about submission and dominance, all-night sex, teasing her famed ponytail in bed and… let’s just say, licking her doughnut. Positions feels like a reset back to the sexually-empowered path Ariana was heading on with Dangerous Woman, before the various traumatic events she experienced since 2017 changed the direction of her music and the conversation around it. But this also makes the album far more one-track-minded than her previous offerings. Fair enough, though; who isn’t when they’re that turned on?
5. My Everything
With the cutest album cover to ever exist (how is she sitting on that stool like that, asleep, and still looking slay?), Ariana’s sophomore record shifted her sound in the direction she’s become famed for today: soulful 90s R&B meets electropop, if leaning more towards the pop side of that spectrum than her later works. With a swarm of other artists lining up to work with her on this record – Harry Styles (he wrote “Just A Little Bit Of Your Heart” for her!), David Guetta, Childish Gambino, The Weeknd, A$AP Ferg, Iggy Azalea, Zedd, Nicki Minaj and Jessie J are just a few – singles “Break Free”, “Problem”, “One Last Time”, “Love Me Harder” and “Bang Bang” cemented her as a rising superstar to watch and are tracks that still go off in a club to this day.
4. Yours Truly
The child star to popstar pipeline is not an easy one to navigate. While many of her Disney and Nickelodeon peers have opted for controversy and club-ready bangers to, rather iconically, shatter previous conceptions, Ariana’s debut album was instead a focus on finding her own sound closer to the music she grew up with and loved. Her effortlessly soulful vocals, reminiscent of her early icons Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, echo the 90s R&B. Pure pop numbers “Baby I”, “Right There”, timeless lead single “The Way” and the collaboration with The Wanted’s Nathan Sykes on the steamy “Almost Is Never Enough” are seamlessly and surprisingly interwoven with 50s blues and piano pop on tracks like “Piano”, “Tattooed Heart” and “Honeymoon Avenue”. If the cover of “Popular Song” was a premonition of her starring role in the upcoming Wicked movie, Yours Truly was an early indication of the star power of Ariana, one whose voice knows no bounds, pulling at your heartstrings and making you want to get up and dance within the same breathy note.
3. Dangerous Woman
Opening with the twinkly doo-wop ballad “Moonlight” that nods to the start of her music career, we quickly swerve into the mindset of Ariana in her mid-twenties, a more mature artist who has switched out the wardrobe of kitsch cat ears and frilly, girly lingerie for thigh-high boots and oversized hoodies sans bottoms. Ariana’s third record echoes her move into adulthood, pushing her 90s R&B-inflicted pop further and experimenting with hip-hop, trap and rock, from the uber-horny leanings of “Everyday” and walk of shame anthem “Side to Side” and the sultry tones of the title track and the Macy Gray featuring “Leave Me Lonely”, to the deep house banger “Be Alright” and pulsating, pensive “Thinking Bout You”. Then there’s “Into You”, a lovesick club tune with an ultra-addictive beat that is not only the standout of the album but arguably of her entire career. Dangerous Woman is the first record by Ariana where it’s clear she has found her identity and is not afraid to be both the sweet ponytailed girly girl with the stunning voice we knew and the icon who wants you to know that she is very much getting some.
2. thank u, next
Created and released in the wake of both the colossal success of Sweetener that had rocketed her stardom to new heights, as well as heartbreaking personal traumas, thank u, next is a deeply intimate reflection on where Ariana is at in this period. If Sweetener is an album that looks to positivity, moving on from the trauma of the past, then thank u, next is – ironically, considering the name – one that very much dwells in the confusion, pain and suffering. It explores her attempts to move on or find pleasure amongst the trauma, all then whilst being the biggest and arguably the vocally strongest artist in the world. As a result, it produced some of her most popular pop songs to date – (“thank u, next” and “7 rings”) and an out-of-this-world vocal performance on “imagine” featuring whistle tones that leaves every other artist dead in a ditch. However, the album’s true skill comes in its perfect blend of deeply vulnerable tracks about deep personal losses few will ever know, opened with voice notes from friends and family and samples from bluesy tracks, to then singing about how she is so rich she can have whatever she wants… including a man already in a relationship. She was so real for that.
1. Sweetener
There are few comeback singles quite as powerful as “no tears left to cry”. Released almost a year after the Manchester Arena bombing on her Dangerous Woman tour, it opens with an almost spiritual tone to her ethereal voice before dropping into a thumping, escapist, R&B dance track that was not only critically acclaimed and a chart-topper but was a vision of an empowered Ariana, now ready to pick herself and her fans up. What then followed in this era was basically a massive fuck you to anyone who tried to go against her. That’s done in more overt ways, such as the spicy blasphemy bop “God is a woman” and the unapologetic, empowerment anthem “successful”, but also through a fiercely open, positive, loving and supportive energy across “get well soon”, sad dance bop “breathin’” and the glitchy “the light is coming” featuring Nicki Minaj. It’s a pretty powerful move to defiantly be yourself in the face of such aggressive attacks against you and your womanhood, and that defiance and resilience shines through on this record, creating something beautiful and truly rare.