If you only listen to Ariana Grande’s music, you’ve barely gotten half the story of her career. Few celebrities have been more shaped by their media narratives over the past decade than the singer and actress. In Grande’s case, that’s meant knowing when a story is an opportunity and when it’s time to play some good old-fashioned defense. On her seventh album, Eternal Sunshine, Grande makes a meal of addressing her recent divorce from real-estate agent Dalton Gomez and new relationship with (also recently divorced) Wicked co-star Ethan Slater. But she also knows just how much to give. As she sings on “We Can’t Be Friendsâ€: “I don’t wanna feed this monstrous fire / Just wanna let this story die / And I’ll be all right.†Here are the highs, lows, and whoas of Grande’s time in the spotlight.
2013–15: A Rocky Start
HIGH: Second single’s the charm. After Grande’s 2011 debut single, “Put Your Hearts Up†— a sugar-dusted interpolation of 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?†— failed to gain traction, she returned in 2013 with a more mature and successful sound (and a more natural hair color), plus an influential new mega manager in Scooter Braun. Her retro-R&B single “The Way†with Mac Miller peaked at No. 9, and its accompanying album, Yours Truly, debuted at No. 1. Grande replicated that success less than a year later with My Everything and a string of four top-ten singles (“Problem,†“Break Free,†“Bang Bang,†and “Love Me Harderâ€).
WHOA: The diva allegations. “Ariana Grande is on the brink of a major image problem,†a Washington Post op-ed declared in 2014. The offenses included being rude to fans at meet-and-greets, a rumored list of no-go interview questions, and a request to only be photographed from her left side. (Cue the Mariah comparisons — just don’t ask her about them.) Grande brushed off the reports, tweeting that she was “laughing out loud†at “rumors†about her. She still had to dispel them years later, when she told James Corden in 2018 that, no, she did not need to be carried everywhere.
LOW: She hates doughnuts and America? Just when it looked like her diva reputation couldn’t get any worse, then came the most bizarre incident. In 2015, Grande was in a bakery with her boyfriend at the time, Ricky Alvarez, when she spotted a tray of doughnuts, licked some, and said, “I hate America.†Of course, it was all caught on video. Fox’s Laura Ingraham called her “estupida†(even though Grande is not Latina), and even the police investigated. (The shop declined to press charges.) Grande apologized multiple times — first Notes app, then video — explaining that her comments were about obesity and she’s “EXTREMELY proud to be an American.†She lost gigs at the MLB All-Star Game and the White House. Fans may laugh about it now, but Grande later admitted that she stopped doing interviews for years afterward, fearing that diva label.
2016–17: Dangerous Woman
HIGH: An A-list ascent. As she released her third album, Dangerous Woman, Grande was nearly everywhere that mattered: pulling double duty on SNL; playing Penny on Hairspray Live!; appearing on Time’s “100 Most Influential People†list (just not the top spot of the Billboard 200, which Dangerous Woman barely missed). She hadn’t just dusted Nickelodeon off her — she’d become one of the most successful former Nick or Disney stars, period, in just a few short years.
WHOA: Misogyny is inescapable. Everyone noticed that Grande had gone from teen to adult star — and some didn’t respond like adults themselves. Grande recounted on Twitter meeting one fan of Mac Miller, her boyfriend at the time, who congratulated the rapper for “hitting that.†She said she felt “sick and objectified,†while noting that those moments “happen all the time.†(Grande even reportedly broke up with her ex, Big Sean, over a bar about her “billion-dollar pussy.â€) “Expressing sexuality in art is not an invitation for disrespect,†Grande tweeted. “Just like wearing a short skirt is not asking for assault.â€
WHOA: Now what did “Smariana Schmande†do? Naya Rivera said she wasn’t a girl’s girl first. In the late Glee star’s 2016 memoir, she remembered once finding Grande at home with her then-fiancé, Big Sean — or, as she wrote, someone whose name “rhymes with ‘Smariana Schmande.’†Sean broke off his engagement to Rivera in April 2014, and was with Grande just six months later.
LOW AND WHOA: The Manchester bombing. A near sold-out show in Manchester, England, on May 22, 2017, turned into one of the worst days of Grande’s career when a terrorist bombed Manchester Arena just after the concert ended, killing 22 people. Grande returned to Manchester for a benefit performance just two weeks later — too soon, some victims’ families worried ahead of time. But, the Guardian wrote, “Her earnestness and emotional acuity meant that for thousands of people, this was an event that soothed and uplifted.†Grande assembled over a dozen performers at the last minute, and raised more than £17 million for victims and their families.
2018–19: Peak Ari
WHOA: The Pete Davidson whirlwind. May 12, 2018: Ariana Grande attends a Saturday Night Live after-party, just after breaking up with Mac Miller. May 18: Bossip reported that she had started seeing SNL’s Pete Davidson, also newly single. (“Did Ariana Grande Dump Mac Miller to Let THIS SNL Actor Chop Her 4 Octave Cakes To Smithereens?†the site asked. Ew!) June 11: The gossips reported that they were engaged. October 14: TMZ reported they’d called the whole thing off. Those 155 days inspired multiple albums’ worth of material for Grande, a special full of jokes for Davidson, and endless speculation from the rest of us as to whether this was true love that just burned out fast or the greatest PR relationship grift ever.
HIGH: The one-two punch of Sweetener and “Thank U, Next.†Grande spun the pain of the Manchester bombing and the joy of a new relationship into gold on Sweetener, a forward-looking pop-R&B album that’s still the high mark of her career. Everyone from Billboard and Rolling Stone to Pitchfork and Stereogum loved it, and the album earned Grande her first Grammy. Then, just months later, she followed it up with the reflective, hooky “Thank U, Next,†the title track to Sweetener’s follow-up, which became her first No. 1 single and topped even more lists. Not bad for a year’s work.
LOW: “Sounds about white.†After critics praised Grande for Sweetener’s retro R&B and trap influences, she started diving further into hip-hop on “Thank U, Next†and second single “7 Rings.†It had been as smooth a pivot you could ask for — until Princess Nokia, a rapper from New York, accused Grande of plagiarizing “7 Rings.†“Sounds about white,†Nokia tweeted of the song, comparing the lyrics and flow to “Mine,†her own ode to Black women’s hair. (Others noticed similarities to a 2 Chainz song.) “It’s never my intention to offend anybody,†Grande said in response to critiques of the song. But as “7 Rings†hit No. 1, Nokia’s claims grew into fans accusing Grande (who, yes, is white) of “blackfishing,†or darkening her skin and changing her speech to seem Black. And it didn’t stop there. Grande also faced criticism for getting a Japanese tattoo celebrating the song that actually read “shichirin,†or a small grill, and later in the year, for allegedly stealing mood-board ideas from drag queen Farrah Moan. It all made some fans and critics wonder: Whose music and style had they really been celebrating?
WHOA: Coming right for the bloggers. Grande’s yearslong cold war with the media finally bubbled over after some writers called out her friend Justin Bieber for lip-syncing during Grande’s otherwise-successful headlining Coachella set. “One day everybody that works at all them blogs will realize how unfulfilled they are and purposeless what they’re doing is and hopefully shift their focus elsewhere,†Grande tweeted. “That’s gonna be a beautiful ass day for them! I can’t wait for them to feel lit inside.†It was under the guise of defending a friend, but anyone who’d followed Grande’s history knew she was speaking more for herself.
2020–22: Keeping a Lowish Profile
HIGH: Ruling the early pandemic. Grande was one of the early stars to take COVID-19 seriously, encouraging her followers to stay home and then raising money for first responders with her Justin Bieber duet “Stuck With U.†Then, once she was sure her fans were safe, she gave them a reason to dance in their living rooms, joining Lady Gaga for the monstrous collaboration “Rain on Me.†It became one of the most indelible hits of the pandemic.
LOW: Grande-saturation. Too bad she had little new to say on Positions, her third album in three years, other than that she was horny for her new boo, real-estate agent Dalton Gomez (whom she teased in the “Stuck With U†video). “The formula is starting to feel a little safe now,†New York’s Craig Jenkins wrote. Positions did what it was meant to do — both the song and album went No. 1 — but was quickly overshadowed by newer, shinier returns from Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift. So Grande retreated, too, barely promoting the album after it dropped. Once touring returned to full force in 2022, she was off shooting Wicked in the U.K., the album fully back of mind.
WHOA: Saying yuh to Dalton Gomez. Hard-launching a random non-industry boyfriend as Grande’s first public relationship since Davidson was shocking enough. Then came the lust letter of Positions, the engagement, and the semi-secret wedding (that is, until the Vogue photo drop). Really? the world wondered. This is the guy that heaven sent?
2023–24: Beating the Allegations?
LOW: The home-wrecker claims. Once Grande began dating Ethan Slater, it didn’t take a detective to put the clues together. Grande and Gomez had reportedly been separated since January 2023, with an official date of separation listed as February 20. Where was she during that time? Filming Wicked … with Slater (who plays Boq, a Munchkin hopelessly in love with Grande’s Glinda). The theater star filed to divorce his high-school sweetheart in July 2023, just as he began seeing Grande. TMZ said both were single when they began dating and had been together for “several†months by July. This was probably true — they weren’t pictured cozying up together until March, when they celebrated co-star Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar win. But none of that appeased Slater’s ex, Lilly Jay, who told “Page Six†that Grande was “not a girl’s girl.â€
WHOA: Getting off the Scooter. Scooter Braun helped mold Grande’s image through its varying stages — until she dropped him out of nowhere in 2023. Braun’s role had ballooned in the decade since he signed her, and she reportedly felt ignored by the manager she once had a personal connection with. She later signed with Brandon Creed, longtime manager of her friend Troye Sivan, and has yet to address this divorce herself.
HIGH: Dancing back to the top. Grande reclaimed her pop crown with “Yes, And?,†the lead single to her seventh album, Eternal Sunshine, by channeling another queen, Madonna. She and Max Martin flipped the “Vogue†beat with taste, a nod to the ongoing dance boom. The lyrics toed a line between empowerment and clapback: “Your business is yours, and mine is mine.†(Likewise for the video, an homage to Paula Abdul’s own Fosse-esque clapback to the press for “Cold Hearted.â€) But that didn’t stop Grande from spilling more of said business on the album. On “Eternal Sunshine,†she hints that ex Dalton Gomez is a liar and possible cheater; on “True Story†and “The Boy Is Mine,†she owns her “bad girl†role with Slater nearly straight to his ex’s face. It was enough buzz to get Grande back on Saturday Night Live, between appearances at the Super Bowl and Oscars. But she may not have realized the fire she started — after Eternal Sunshine’s release, Grande posted an Instagram Story asking fans to stop the “hateful messages†to others “based on your interpretation of this album.†(In the run-up to the album, she claimed tabloid coverage of her life had been misogynistic; her Wicked co-star Bowen Yang later said “the narrative has been incorrect†around Grande and Slater.) Critics appreciated Grande’s openness, though, with Pitchfork calling the album “emotionally generous.†And in the days after both the album and second single “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)†hit No. 1, she closed the chapter on Gomez’s story, finalizing their divorce with a simple $1.25 million payment.