Determined: Ariana Grande
- Prisha Dayal
- Nov 20, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 7, 2022
A brave and talented person who inspires almost everyone who knows her name, and most do. With no secret of her talent, Grande presents herself as a “Dangerous Woman” and sings with a “Bang Bang” and as we all begin to “Love [her] Harder” we can’t help but hope we earn one of her “7 Rings”. Ariana Grande and her journey in becoming one of today’s most infamous pop stars is a road of triumphs and challenges that has ultimately led up to the ponytail princess’s success.
Ariana has been working for her fame since she was still in school. She started her career in acting and singing by being cast in plays such as Annie with the Fort Lauderdale’s Children’s Theatre and singing the national anthem for a Florida Panthers game at just 8 years old. She later on got cast in the Broadway musical 13 where she held over 100 performances. Using that experience and talent at hand, she got cast in Victorious, a popular 2010 Nickelodeon show, and later acted in spin off Sam and Cat starring Ariana’s character, Cat, and Sam, played by Jennette McCurdy. After this sudden rise in fame, she released her first album Yours Truly, debuting #1 on the Billboard 200. Her singing career really got started with her first hit, The Way, a collaboration with Mac Miller peaking at #10 on the Hot 100. With the help of her four-octave voice, Grande started working with a lot of features in her second album including Iggy Azalea, The Weeknd, Zedd, Big Sean, and more. Her next albums, in order, were My Everything, Dangerous Woman, Sweetener, Thank You, Next, and Positions. Now she is one of the world’s best-selling artists and all of her studio albums have been appointed at least platinum. This rise in fame also came with a rise in awards and recognition.
With two grammys, 12 MTV awards, and numerous others compiling to over 170 awards and over 480 nominations she has broken 20 world records. Some of them include the most hits debuted at #1 on The Hot 100, first solo act to occupy top three positions simultaneously on US singles chart, most streamed album by a female artist in one week, and most followers on Instagram (female). She also broke records for most followers, monthly listeners, streamed act, and streamed track on Spotify. She has also gained recognition by appearing on numerous talk shows by famous hosts such as Jimmy Fallon and James Cordon. These are just a few of her accomplishments over the years that all helped her become a house-hold name and pop-icon.
Although Ariana has had a lot of achievements, she has also been through many hardships. Grande broke off her incredibly quick engagement with Pete Davidson in 2018 after just 5 months of being together. One of the reasons for this was Mac Miller, Ariana’s former partner and best friend, had died causing Ariana to experience an overload of grief. Davidson said in an interview with Charlamagne Tha God that he "pretty much knew it was over after that”. Ariana had to deal with a mountain of anguish and heartbreak from the series of devastating events, something she also had to feel on May 22, 2017. That was the date of ISIS’s suicide bombing during Ariana’s concert in the Manchester Arena killing the “22 angels” and injuring 116 souls. Shattering the hearts of the people who attended the concert and their families, the bombing was a traumatic experience for everyone, including Ariana. She later visited the families of victims and raised millions of dollars from a benefit concert in Manchester, called One Love Manchester, to donate to the families. She also tweeted, “from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don’t have words”. Regardless of her PTSD, Grande never lost her courage and with bravery, pushed through her tour keeping the lost fans on her mind and in her heart.
Despite these events, Ariana worked hard to keep going with her career. Her success and fame helped her expand her career by joining The Voice, a TV series where incredible voices compete with each other while being mentored by the judges to win a cash prize and recording contract. This gained Ariana even more popularity as everyone supported this new talented addition to the show. With this, she finally started her own beauty brand, R.E.M., which was made available just recently featuring 12 products focusing on lips and eyes. With this growth in her career, Grande is making her name more grand with each new idea.
Now, Ariana has developed a huge fan base who call themselves “Arianators” and has earned the title of a “pop-icon.” Ariana has definitely reached some incredible feats since her time as Annie and she is sure to continue growing as one of the greatest artists of the century.
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I loved this article!! Ariana really deserves all the awards and fame she has, she's worked so hard to get where she is now. Great writing :)