20. “Bad Decisions”- Dangerous Woman
I actually really didn’t think much about this song until I listened to Dangerous Woman for my review of it in 2017. I always thought “yeah, this song is good, but it’s not my favorite”. Upon that relisten, I ended up really loving it and it’s one of my favorites from the album. It’s sort of like an upbeat version of the album’s title track, with the same “ooh you’re such a bad boy, you make me want to do bad things” message, but even though I like “Dangerous Woman” a lot, I wouldn’t object to this being the lead single instead. I feel like this song has a better hook and is more upbeat and playful. Although the reference to “hood love” may raise some eyebrows coming from a former child star, I feel like this is still a catchy and fun song. I like how playful the melody on the verses is and the chorus is great. My favorite part is the bridge, where Ariana does more of a confident whisper before delivering the mic-drop line: “Ain’t you ever seen a princess be a bad bitch?” This song does a great job at being a confident, edgy but still upbeat pop song, and I love it.
19. “Break Your Heart Right Back” ft. Childish Gambino- My Everything
Honestly, I don’t really care for any of the singles from My Everything. I don’t dislike any of them, they just aren’t any of my personal favorite Ariana songs. “Problem” is probably my favorite of them, and it’s great when I actually want to listen to it, but most of the time I just don’t. “Break Free” is overrated, “Bang Bang” is too “OMG LOOK HOW HIGH WE CAN BELT AND HOW MANY VOCAL RUNS WE CAN DO WE’RE SUCH AMAZING VOCALISTS” for my tastes, “Love Me Harder” is a song I like, but feel like I should like more than I do considering that I love Ariana to death and enjoy pretty much every The Weeknd song I've heard, and “One Last Time” has never appealed to me despite its emotional significance with the Manchester tragedy. However, a lot of the deep cuts from the album are really good, and “Break Your Heart Right Back” is one of my favorites. I love the samples from “Mo Money Mo Problems” by the Notorious B.I.G. and “I’m Coming Out” by Diana Ross. This song has a lot of hooks and catchy parts, including the samples. My favorite is the “what goes around, comes around” part. I also like how this song is about Ariana finding out her boyfriend is cheating on her, not with another girl, but with a boy. I also like the guest feature from Childish Gambino, who plays as her ex. I would kill to have another collaboration between Ariana, one of the biggest pop divas of today, and Childish Gambino, who is basically the Renaissance man of our times. Can we have them do a slow R&B guitar song, like “Redbone” and “Dangerous Woman”? I would love that.
18. “Knew Better/Forever Boy”- Dangerous Woman
This song is a two-in-one, a package deal. I actually said I liked the “Forever Boy” half better when I reviewed Dangerous Woman, which is kind of mind-boggling to me now. “Forever Boy” is fine, but it feels like album filler. I think “Knew Better” deserved to stand as its own song. There’s an extended version that Ariana released on SoundCloud. If I were in charge of this album, I would have put the extended version as a whole song and gotten rid of “Forever Boy”. It feels weird referring to Ariana Grande as a “savage”, considering I first got introduced to her as Cat Valentine, a character who is not a savage in any way. However, I’d probably refer to the lyrics of this song as “savage”. It’s a clear diss to an ex who wronged her, and some of my favorite lyrics are “You can say what you wanna, but I wouldn’t believe it”and from the extended version, I like, “If you knew better, you would do better, but you don’t know sh*t so I’ll do better”. Of the many R&B-inspired songs Ariana has released, “Knew Better” is one of my favorites.
17. “sweetener”- Sweetener
I just think this song is really cute. When I reviewed the sweetener album, I gave this one a 9/10, but I’d probably give it a 9.5, maybe even a perfect 10 if I was reviewing it now. This song is just adorable and tremendously fun to lip-sync to. Whenever it comes up on shuffle, I have to start lip-syncing to the chorus and that probably makes me a weirdo but I don’t care. This song is about the person who makes you feel good at your worst, the one who makes your day a little sweeter just by existing. The chorus is super sweet, but then she follows it up with a post-chorus that sounds like it’s from Bop It. It’s good though. I also really like the production courtesy of Pharrell Williams, which sounds like a 90s slow jam mixed with video game synths. Ariana collaborated with Pharrell for a lot of the songs on sweetener, and this is easily my favorite of their collaborations. Still not crazy about when she sings “I like the way you lick the bowl” because I think that’s kind of gross, but I still love the song.
16. “bad idea”- thank u, next
This is one of the bops from the thank u, next album, and it’s a song I think had quite a bit of potential to be a single. It’s darker, but not to the point where it isn’t catchy and upbeat. I really like a lot of the melody lines on this song, specifically the “forget about him, yeah, forget about him, yeah, forget about me” part in the chorus. The song has a really cool guitar part that repeats through it to help set sort of an ominous vibe. It turns out the “bad idea” in the title isn’t anything promiscuous, instead it’s just that Ariana and her lover need to temporarily take a break. This theme is also touched on in the song “NASA” from the same album, which is another song I really love but forgot to put on here. Consider it my #21, I guess. My favorite elements of “bad idea” are the vocals and the strings at the end. I love how it climaxes with some strings then Ariana belts “I got a BAAAD IDEAAAAA” at the beginning of the last chorus. The outro for this song is also just like, a minute of some beautiful strings, and I love it.
15. “Heatstroke”- by Calvin Harris, also featuring Young Thug and Pharrell Williams
I'm keeping most of this list as songs that appeared on Ariana’s albums where she is the lead artist. I think her albums are truly where she does her best work and gets to express herself as freely as possible. However, I still really love a ton of songs where she’s a featured vocalist, so I’m going to highlight this one as my absolute favorite. I remember in 2017, Calvin Harris did a ton of these disco-style songs where he’d get a bunch of singers and rappers to um, sing and rap, and then there would be a really nice disco funk groove to hold them together. I also really liked “Slide” with Frank Ocean and Migos and “Feels” with Pharrell, Katy Perry, and Big Sean, but this one was my favorite, because of course it was. Ariana really doesn’t belt or anything, she just coos “when you do things like this, and you set me free” after every chorus. It’s a small part, but I still think she sounds really pretty and the song would be missing something if her part was taken out. Pharrell also does a nice, breezy chorus and Young Thug’s ridiculous caterwauling manages to work. All three of the performers sound like they’re having fun and the beat is great too. I could have chosen “Quit” by Cashmere Cat or “All My Love” by Major Lazer for my token Ariana-featuring song for this list, but the summery vibes of “Heatstroke” were too irresistible for me to deny.
14. “everytime”- sweetener
When I reviewed sweetener, this was one of my early favorites. It’s still up there as one of my favorite songs from the record, essentially for one single moment: the part where she belts “BAAACK TO YOU-U!” at the final chorus. The song could be complete crap in every other aspect, but it would still probably make the list because of that one glorious moment. Ariana is bar none my favorite vocalist; her voice and tone is just so pretty and pleasing to the ears. Just listening to her sing is a delight, and I absolutely live for her high notes. Ariana’s insane vocals make this song for me, but luckily, there’s a lot to like even without the high notes. I really like the vibe this song goes for and the chorus is really good. The song is super catchy with great vocals and production, and I think it would have made a good choice as a single.
13. “imagine”- thank u, next
One of the most tragic things that can happen to a person is watching a best friend die young. On September 7, 2018, rapper Mac Miller died from a suspected drug overdose. He had dated Ariana for a few years, and despite the couple breaking up earlier that year, she still loved him and considered him a best friend. Naturally, Ariana was inconsolable upon his passing, so she paid tribute by releasing songs about him on the album thank u, next. “imagine” is the first song on the record, and Ariana tweeted that it is about “a simple, beautiful love that is now (and forever) unattainable”. It is widely believed to be about Mac, and it’s the perfect tribute to their love. This song gives a look into what their relationship was, with details like “staying up all night, order me pad Thai, then we gon’ sleep ‘till noon.” It really makes you feel for Ariana, knowing that she can no longer have such a lovely relationship like that. The production is very R&B inspired and sets an appropriate vibe for Ariana to get personal. Her vocal performance is one of her most emotional to date. The highlight for most is when she uses her whistle register to hit some piercing high notes, but as amazing as those high notes are, I think they sound even better live. I’m going to shout out the performance of this song from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, because it is just breathtaking to me. If you like amazing vocal performances, check this one out!
12. “The Way” ft. Mac Miller- Yours Truly
We go from a song about the late Mac Miller to a song that features him. I don’t really know much about his music, and obviously I don’t know Ariana or any of these people personally, but he was probably my favorite of Ariana’s ex-boyfriends. He was one I thought was the best match for her. She seemed so happy with him, and he was by her side during the Manchester incident, the hardest time of her life. It’s a tragedy that they won’t ever be reunited, in this lifetime, at least, when their love seemed so pure. Plus, every song they collaborated on was a treat. Even before they started dating, on this song, they had a ton of chemistry and just seemed so cute together. “The Way” was Ariana’s first official single and it was a great way for her to start out. As soon as the song came out, she became to receive comparisons to Mariah Carey for her musical style and vocal talent. This song came out in 2013, which was the same year as Miley Cyrus’s Bangerz and twerking. Although I’ve begun to appreciate the Bangerz era as I’ve gotten older, it was nice to have a former child star who wasn’t overly flashy and was more focused on letting her music and talent speak for itself. “The Way” isn’t anything overly deep, but it doesn’t try to be. It’s just a cute little throwback pop song with the intentions of putting a smile on your face. It really showed what Ariana was all about at this stage in her career; R&B-flavored pop with an emphasis on her great vocals. And even today, she’s still all about those things.
11. “Greedy”- Dangerous Woman
Just barely missing my top 10 is “Greedy”, one of the big fan favorites from the Dangerous Woman album. This song, more than any other, was the one that was requested to be a single, get a music video, all that fun stuff. Unfortunately, it never got the big push it needed to become a chart-topping hit, which I think is a disgrace. I know Future is a big name, but was pushing “Everyday” as a single really the best decision? “Greedy” had so much potential to be a big hit. In addition to it being adored by the fans, it had a sort of funky throwback sound reminiscent of Bruno Mars, a catchy chorus, excellent vocals, and a lot of potential for a great music video. I really love this song and I think it’s one of the most fun and upbeat songs Ariana has in her discography. I love how it’s so playful and in-your-face. Plus, I always love when a song does a key change in the final chorus, and this song does it. Ariana’s music, especially as of late, tends to lean more towards R&B. Most of the time, it’s more R&B like something Drake would do, and that’s fine and dandy, but I’d also like to see more throwback R&B, Bruno Mars-y songs like this. And if she does make more songs like this, her label had better not repeat the mistakes they made with “Greedy”- at least one of them needs to be released as a single and get a ton of promo!
10. “Right There”- Yours Truly
This song is the epitome of everything that made early Ariana great, with 90s R&B-inspired production, a catchy hook, adorable lyrics, and impressive vocals. This song is pretty cute, but it definitely has an urban side with the production and Big Sean’s solid rap verse. It’s probably the song on the album that bears the most resemblance to current Ariana, both sonically and quality-wise. This is a perfect pop song, with memorable and catchy melodies in every aspect of it. This is also one of Ari’s strongest vocal performances from this era. She handles her vocals with such control and the high falsetto notes at the beginning are gorgeous. She also sounds like she’s genuinely having fun singing. I feel like this is definitely Ariana’s most underrated single. It definitely underperformed on the charts compared to other songs of hers and it should have done a lot better. It could have been a huge hit if given the right promotion.
9. “God is a woman”- sweetener
This song blew my mind the first time I heard it, and even though I probably prefer the other sweetener singles, I still think “God is a woman” is an incredible song. Although the fact that it’s a sex song instead of a straight female empowerment song may be disappointing to some, I still think it manages to be empowering no matter what the subject matter is. The production and the way Ariana uses her voice really give the song a powerful vibe. You play this song and you feel like an all-powerful girl boss who can destroy anything in her way...at least that’s how I feel when I listen to it. I really like the different types of singing Ariana does in this song, from the seductive lower range in the verses to the rapid-fire pre-chorus to the belting in the chorus and the outro, all culminating in the whistle note right at the final chorus. The outro is stellar, with Ariana’s voice layered over and over to make a choir-like effect. I absolutely love when songs have vocal harmonies, and Ariana goes the extra mile by recording layers and layers of complex harmonies herself. It’s one of the many reasons why she’s my favorite. Also while I don’t have much to say about the lyrics as a whole, I adore the line “When you try to come for me, I keep on flourishing”. I just think that’s a powerful sentiment regardless of context. Whenever people try to knock you down, you just get even stronger.
8. “Touch It”- Dangerous Woman
I actually reviewed the Dangerous Woman album in 2017, and when I talked about “Touch It”, I said, and I quote:
“This is another one of my absolute favorite songs by Ariana. If I were to make a list of my top 10 favorites, this would make it.”
It’s been a few years since I said that, but I’m now making this list of my favorite Ariana songs, and “Touch It” is in my top ten. Just goes to show how much I truly love this song. And the main reason why I love this song is Ariana herself. Ariana sounds absolutely incredible on every song she’s ever sung, but if I had a gun to my head and was asked to pick the best vocal performance of her career, I’d pick “Touch It”. This song really shows off every amazing aspect of her voice, and there are so many stunning vocal moments here it’s crazy. Her low notes in the verses are soothing and surprisingly solid considering how high her voice is, her middle range is stunning, her upper belted notes are chill-inducing, and the highest notes (falsetto? Whistle notes? I’m not sure of the correct terminology) are perfect. The song itself is pretty good, with some great synths and a bunch of fantastic melody lines. But I can safely say that I wouldn’t love this song nearly as much if it wasn’t being sung by my favorite voice on the planet. Ariana’s vocal skills can make a mediocre song become worth listening to and send a good song into the stratosphere, and that’s what she does here.
7. “Honeymoon Avenue”- Yours Truly
Not many pop stars would have the first song on their first album be nearly six minutes long. From what I can tell, it’s common for pop stars, especially those who are in their debut era, to not get super risky or experimental so they can attract the general public. Most debut albums start out with the big single to hook people in with a song they already they know. Ariana took a risk by opening her debut album with a six-minute song, but it paid off because I think this song is gorgeous. The song has a unique premise of using a traffic jam as a metaphor for a souring relationship. This song is overall one of her best lyrically. She also sounds absolutely gorgeous vocally, focusing more on selling the bittersweet emotions of the song than showing off. I also really like the production of this song. There are actually two different versions of “Honeymoon Avenue”. There’s the one on the album, which is more sultry and modern, and the original, which is very 50s doo-wop and more upbeat. I definitely prefer the album version, because its less upbeat tempo just fits the lyrical content. For whatever reason, this song makes me pretty emotional. I don’t know why that is, because I’ve never dated anyone and can’t relate to the lyrics, but it’s just that one time, I was in the car listening to this song and I was trying so hard not to cry. Because it makes me emotional, I don’t really listen to this song that much, but it’s still my favorite song from Yours Truly and a very special song for Ariana and her fans.
6. “no tears left to cry”- sweetener
This song was Ariana’s first release after Dangerous Woman and the Manchester attack, and it was highly anticipated by many at the time, including myself. The result was one of the most likable and hopeful pop songs to come out in recent memory. To me, this song is about keeping a positive outlook on life and celebrating despite all the tough times one has been through. The melodies are catchy, the harmonies are tight, the production is ethereal, and Ariana delivers a knockout vocal performance. In live performances, Ariana often likes to ad-lib and make changes to the melody of the song, much to my delight, and one of my favorites is when she adds an extra high note on the final “We on another mentality” in this song. It’s just really pleasing to the ears. Everything about this song makes it a highlight of Ariana’s discography and it would be the best lead-off single for one of her albums...if she hadn’t immediately topped with her next album’s lead single a few months later.
5. “thank u, next”- thank u, next
Ariana had already been through so much by sweetener’s release, with the Manchester tragedy and her PTSD following it. But the months immediately after the album saw a bunch of really tough events in Ariana’s life, one after another. Of course, quite possibly the saddest event was seeing her ex die at such a young age, and because people are stupid and ignorant and like to assume they know everything, she actually got blamed for his death. On top of that, she called off her engagement to Pete Davidson and ended their very public relationship. As a result, even though she had just released sweetener, she made the thank u, next album pretty quickly and released it just six months afterward. The first song she released from the album was the title track, a song that makes me so proud of how far she’s come as an artist and a person. This is a song about acknowledging the hardships in your life and although they might have seemed difficult in the past, they all helped you become a better person than you were before. She takes time to thank her exes for teaching her love, patience, and pain, and although she is genuinely appreciative of her time with them, she’s ready to move onto the next chapter in her life. My favorite lyric is in the second verse where she’s talking about how she’s found someone else, but then says, “I know they say I move on too fast, but this one gon’ last/Cuz her name is Ari and I’m so good with that.” It’s such an interesting way to phrase how she’s taken time to love herself. Really, I love every line in this song and think they’re all iconic at this point. I would say this song as a whole is iconic. It was Ariana’s first #1 of her career and debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and while I think she deserved one before this song, it is probably the most fitting song to take the prime position. It’s something only Ariana could have made, as it is extremely personal to her, and what it represents for her is something I truly admire. Plus when she takes time to immortalize Mac by singing, “Wish I could say ‘thank you’ to Malcolm, ‘cuz he was an angel”, I get hit in the feels every time.
4. “fake smile”- thank u, next
So, as we established, 2017 and 2018 were...not great years for Ariana’s personal life. Between losing an ex-boyfriend from a drug overdose, having a very public engagement followed by a very public break-up, to a literal terrorist attack at one of her concerts, Ariana has been through a lot. The thank u, next album touches on a lot of those themes, and my personal favorite is “fake smile”. This song is about how if she’s feeling upset, she’s not gonna act like she’s not, because she has been through too much to do that. There are also some lyrics about how even though she’s so grateful to be in the position she is as a famous singer, she sometimes wishes that she wasn’t in the public eye. She admits to being too afraid to leave a party alone (presumably because she knows the paparazzi will get at her if she goes alone), and she admits that some of the things she reads about herself in the headlines are genuinely shocking to her. I think this song is a really good portrait of who Ariana is as a person, at least from my perspective. She’s been through a lot and isn’t afraid to be emotional, despite the fact that being stoic is what’s expected of big-name stars. Where this song really shines is in the lyrical content and message, but there are many other things I like about it. I like the old-school, 60s sample from a song called “After Laughter (Comes Tears)” by Wendy Rene. There’s a really nice contrast between the old-school sample and the more modern beat. I also really like the contrast between the pretty, melodic pre-chorus and the actual chorus which is more sparse. This is a song I gravitated towards when I first heard it, and immediately upon listening to it, I knew it would be one of my ultimate favorites from Ariana.
3. “Be My Baby”- My Everything
Truth time: I haven’t listened to Ariana’s second album, My Everything, because I’ve heard all the songs in snippets and only a few of them really stood out to me. One of those clear standouts was “Be My Baby”, her collaboration with Norwegian DJ Cashmere Cat. The one complaint I have about this song is that the lyrics are quite generic, but it doesn’t matter because everything else about the song more than makes up for it. This song is pretty much perfect when it comes to melodic composition to me, as every melody line is memorable and catchy. The chorus’s tune goes up and down in the most satisfying way. I also really like how complex yet appealing the production is. It’s like a mix of the R&B and dance genres, and it sounds incredible. Ariana has done some other collaborations with Cashmere Cat, and it’s clear they do good work together. Ariana herself is the highlight of the song, showing off every aspect of her range in what may be her most technically difficult song to sing yet. She goes from low in the verses to belting at the very top of her range in the final chorus to showing her falsetto and runs at the song’s outro. This song is a great showcase for Ariana’s powerhouse of a voice, but it also manages to be a fun and catchy song.
2. “breathin”- sweetener
This song is extremely personal to me. I struggle with anxiety, and seeing a person I have looked up to for a long time make a song about how she struggles with it too just means the world to me. I’d also like to say that I am so thankful this song came out when it did. In the summer of 2018, I struggled with some pretty bad anxiety. Everyday I worried myself sick with one of three irrational beliefs: everyone I cared about was going to die in a horrible accident, the people I cared about actually hated me behind my back, or I was unknowingly dying of a deadly disease. I spent that entire summer worrying and crying. Ariana’s talked about how she has always had anxiety, and she said that she wrote the song because she was having a lot of panic attacks. I relate to the lyrics immensely, with the lines “Feel my blood running, swear the sky’s falling/I know that all this sh*t’s fabricated” in particular really resonating with me. That’s one of the things about anxiety; I know the things I’m worrying about are all in my head, but in the moment when I’m having a panic attack, it seems very real and very scary. This song isn’t just really relatable, but the tone of the song and the repetition of “just keep breathin’ and breathin’ and breathin’ and breathin’” make it a good song to calm you down. The production actually sounds a lot like “Hold On, We’re Going Home” by Drake, but that’s another all-time favorite for me, so I don’t mind. One of the things I love about “Hold On, We’re Going Home” is how comforting the song feels, and that’s even more true about “breathin”. This song is a gorgeous, emotional, relatable, and comforting synthpop cloud and it means the world to me. This isn’t quite my favorite Ariana song, but it’s bar none the one I’m most grateful to her for making. This song means so much to me and so many others, and I’m so thankful that it got released as a single so that the general public could notice it and it could be there for people who need it.
1. “Into You”- Dangerous Woman
If I had to pick a favorite song of all time, I’d take a little bit to think about it. Maybe I’d choose “Africa” by Toto, a song where my love of it is something of a meme to those who know me in real life. Maybe I’d choose “Shut Up And Dance” by Walk the Moon, a song that can make me smile no matter how many times I hear it. Maybe I’d choose “Fix You” by Coldplay, a song that gets me in my feelings and resonates with me emotionally more than any other. But most likely I’d choose “Into You”. With that said, because I’m relatively sure that it’s my favorite song ever, it’s gonna be hard to talk about. I’m not sure how to explain why this song, out of the thousands I’ve heard in my lifetime, is The One. But dammit, I’m gonna try. I'm a huge fan of pure pop music, somebody who loves when it's well-made, well-produced, and catchy. This song is so perfectly made, it's like the writers have pop perfection down to a science. (and considering Max Martin, the producer behind songs like "I Want It That Way", "Baby One More Time", and "Teenage Dream" is behind it, they probably do have it down to a science.) The production is masterful, with the pounding bass in the beginning and synths in the bridge being particularly noteworthy. The sonic atmosphere this song has is perfect. The lyrics are flirty and fun, perfectly describing the feeling of being in love. That opening with the pounding beat and Ariana breathlessly singing, “I’m so into you, I can barely breathe” is awe-inspiring. And Ariana, being the vocal powerhouse she is, absolutely nails it on this song. Her vocals are low and seductive in the verses, then she’s belting in the chorus, and she even slips in a couple super-high and pretty falsettos towards the end. It’s just one of those songs where everything falls into place perfectly. If I were to write a textbook definition of the perfect pop song, it would be simple; “Into You” by Ariana Grande is the perfect pop song. That textbook would also have an entire chapter dedicated to the bridge, with the pounding beat and Ariana sounding as passionate as ever, climaxing in that amazing high note. It’s the perfect build-up to an incredible payoff with a final chorus that leaves me speechless every time. This song has been out for like four years at this point, and I’ve heard it so many times, but it still manages to be as exhilarating as it was the first time I heard it. “Into You” is the sort of song Ariana could retire on. It’s so breathtakingly perfect that Ariana could release nothing but mediocrity, or even nothing at all, and I’d still consider her my favorite. Luckily, she has continued to make amazing music, despite so many hardships in her life. I love every single song on this list, as well as plenty of other Ariana songs that didn’t make the list. But as far as I’m concerned, “Into You” will always be her zenith, the absolute high point of a discography with so many high points.
Yeah, I know, this one’s long, but when I’m writing about things I genuinely love like I do these songs, I’m naturally going to get wordy. I think my post for next Saturday will be some movie review, because as much as I love talking about music, I’d like to branch out and start talking about movies and other kinds of media as well. I’m not sure what movie it will be about, but that’s what I think it will be. So that’s where I’m going to end this post, and I’ll see you next week.
Stellar
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