‘thank u, next’ – How it Came to Be

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Jordan Myers, Entertainment Editor

Pop sensation, Ariana Grande has been through a lot these past few months. She broke up with her long time boyfriend, Mac Miller, grieved his death of an overdose, dealt with the overwhelming backlash, hate, and blame for his death, found love again in Pete Davidson, got engaged to Pete, called off her engagement to Pete, and has finally given herself time to recover from everything.

Following her ‘Sweetener’ album release in August, she released a single song that has made a permanent home on the top charts and is known of by almost everyone. ‘thank u, next’ is about Ariana overcoming and moving on from all of the pain and heartbreak she’s gone through. She mentions her exes Big Sean, Ricky Alvarez, Mac Miller, and Pete Davidson. She also sings about her estranged dad.

Her relationship with Big Sean ended back in 2016 after Ariana wasn’t present at one of Sean’s most important performances and he found it extremely selfish and it was later revealed that Ariana didn’t go that night not only because of the Grammy’s, but because she wanted to lash out at Sean for a fight no one knew about. In interviews afterwards, he called her immature and selfish. She simply slips their relationship into the song by singing: “Thought I’d end up with Sean, but it wasn’t a match.”

Ariana and Ricky, who she wrote songs about and now laughs at, broke up because they failed to make their relationship work. That was all the description that was given to us, sadly. But it seems like she fell too hard for him and now looks back and laughs. She sings in the song: “Wrote some songs about Ricky, now I listen and laugh.”

The relationship that everyone wanted to be in, was her and Mac’s “perfect” romance. Ariana broke it off with Mac when she got sick and tired of being his mother and babysitter. He struggled a lot with drugs and alcohol and it got exhausting for Ariana to constantly have to look out for him. She called the relationship toxic and didn’t bring him up until his death in September when he overdosed on cocaine and fentanyl. Alcohol was also present in his system at the time of death. Fans immediately flooded her social medias and forced her to take a break. The messages blamed her for his death since she was with another man after their breakup. The guilt must have been immense and the heartbreak had to have been even worse. In the song, she sings: “Wish I could say thank u to Malcolm, cause he was an angel.”

Her very rushed and short-lived relationship with Pete Davidson ended after Mac Miller’s death which obviously crushed Ariana greatly. They quickly got engaged after a month of dating and only lasted around four months in total. She sings: “Even almost got married, and for Pete I’m so thankful.”

She gives the tiniest bit of insight to why her parents divorced when she was only eight: “One day I’ll walk down the aisle, holding hands with my mama, I’ll be thanking my dad ’cause she grew from the drama.”

Sean taught Ariana pain, Mac taught her love, Pete taught her patience, and she is so *** grateful.

The song is an overall masterpiece and should be listened to when you feel that you are in the ‘thank u, next’ stage of a breakup.

‘thank u next’ has broken YouTube records with well over eight-hundred-thousand people watching the live premiere, me being one of them, and is climbing rapidly in views. The four episode docuseries about the Dangerous Woman Tour and the making of the album ‘sweetener’ is also expected to take over the world.