Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande-Butera ( AR-ee-AH-nə GRAHN-day byuu-TAIR-ə; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress.

An influential figure in contemporary popular music, often regarded as a pop icon, she is noted for her four-octave vocal range and whistle register that has garnered critical acclaim. Grande has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including two Grammy Awards, one Brit Award, one Bambi Award, two Billboard Music Awards, three American Music Awards, nine MTV Video Music Awards, 35 Guinness World Records, among others.

Grande began her music career at age 15 in the 2008 Broadway musical 13. She rose to fame for playing Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon television series Victorious (2010–2013) and Sam & Cat (2013–2014). Grande signed with Republic Records in 2011 after label executives viewed 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, while its lead single, “The Way”, reached the top ten of the US Billboard Hot 100. Grande’s voice and vocal performances on the album drew immediate comparisons to Mariah Carey. She experimented with EDM on her second studio album My Everything (2014) and achieved global success with its singles “Problem”, “Break Free” and “Bang Bang”. Grande further explored pop and R&B with her third studio album Dangerous Woman (2016), her first of four consecutive number-one albums in the UK. Personal struggles influenced her trap-infused fourth and fifth studio albums, Sweetener (2018) and Thank U, Next (2019). The former won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, while the latter broke the record for the largest streaming week for a pop album and was nominated for Album of the Year. Its 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 Hot 100 simultaneously and the first woman to succeed herself at the top of the UK Singles Chart. Her 2020 collaborations “Stuck with U” with Justin Bieber and “Rain on Me” with Lady Gaga helped her break the record for most number-one debuts on the Hot 100, the latter winning the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Grande expanded on the trap genre with her sixth studio album, Positions (2020); both the album and its title track debuted at number one in the UK and the US. She garnered three further US number-ones with the remixes of the Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears” and “Die for You”, as well as “Yes, And?”, the lead single to her upcoming seventh studio album Eternal Sunshine (2024).

Grande is one of the world’s best-selling music artists, having sold over 90 million records globally and 100 million certified units (album and songs) in the US alone, while all her studio albums are certified platinum or higher by the RIAA. She has broken a variety of records on the Billboard charts with her albums, songs and as an artist. Having amassed 98 billion streams thus far, Grande is one of the most streamed artists of all time, the most streamed female artist ever as of 2021, and the most streamed female artist of 2010s on Spotify and Apple Music. As of 2020 and 2022, she is also the most subscribed female solo artist and most followed female artist on YouTube and Spotify, while fourteen of Grande’s songs and eight of her music videos reached one billion streams and views on Spotify and Vevo, respectively. She is the female artist with the most one billion songs on the former platform. Grande was included on Time’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world (2016 and 2019) and the Forbes Celebrity 100 (2019–2020). Forbes also reported Grande as the highest-earning female musician of 2020. She was named Woman of the Year (2018), the greatest pop star of 2019, and the most successful female artist to debut in the 2010s by Billboard. Rolling Stone ranked her amongst the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time (2023).

Grande pivoted back to acting by appearing in the 2021 ensemble satire Don’t Look Up. She was also cast as Glinda in the film adaptation of Wicked, which began filming in 2022. Besides music and film, Grande has worked with many charitable organizations and advocates for animal rights, mental health, and gender, racial, and LGBT equality. She has ventured into the cosmetics, fragrances and fashion industries; her fragrance line, which was released in 2015, exceeded $1 billion in sales through 2022. Grande also has a large social media following and became the most followed woman on Instagram in 2019. With over 380 million followers, she is the sixth-most-followed person as of 2023.

From Wikipedia, released under the terms of the CC-BY-SA license.