BIOGRAPHY
Ariana Grande-Butera (born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Born in Boca Raton, Florida, Grande began her career in the 2008 Broadway musical 13. She rose to prominence for her role as Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon television series Victorious (2010–2013) and Sam & Cat (2013–2014). She subsequently signed with Republic Records in 2011 after the label’s executives discovered 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 chart, while its lead single, “The Way”, charted in the top ten of the US Billboard Hot 100.
Grande’s breakthrough second studio album, My Everything (2014), incorporated pop, R&B and EDM sounds and produced the UK number-one singles “Problem” and “Bang Bang”. She continued to explore the pop and R&B genres in Dangerous Woman (2016), her third studio album and first of three consecutive number-ones in the UK. Her trap-infused fourth and fifth studio albums, Sweetener (2018) and Thank U, Next (2019), were both critical and commercial successes. The former won Grande a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, while the latter was nominated for Grammy Album of the Year and set a record for the largest streaming week for a pop album. The 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, the first female to succeed herself at the top of the UK Singles Chart, and the first act to chart lead singles from each of their first five studio albums in the top ten of the Hot 100. With her 2020 collaborations “Stuck with U” and “Rain on Me”, she broke the record for the most number-one debuts on the Hot 100 and became the first artist to have their first four number-one singles debut atop the US charts.
Grande possesses an expansive four-octave vocal range and whistle register. She has received various accolades throughout her career, including one Grammy Award, one Brit Award, two Billboard Music Awards, three American Music Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards, and eight Guinness World Records. Time magazine has named Grande one of the 100 most influential people in the world (2016 and 2019), and Forbes has included her on their annual list of highest-paid women in music (2019 and 2020); Billboard has recognized her as Woman of the Year (2018) and as the most accomplished female artist to debut in the 2010s. Having amassed billions of streams thus far, she was the most streamed female artist of the 2010s on Spotify and Apple Music and is currently the most followed woman on Spotify and YouTube. Outside of music, Grande is the most-followed female on Instagram and regularly uses her large platform to advocate for gender and LGBT equality.
EARLY LIFE
Ariana Grande-Butera was born on June 26, 1993, in Boca Raton, Florida. She is the daughter of Joan Grande, the Brooklyn-born CEO of Hose-McCann Communications, a manufacturer of communications and safety equipment, and Edward Butera, a graphic design firm owner in Boca Raton. Grande is of Italian descent, and she refers to herself as an Italian American of “half Sicilian and half Abruzzese” descent. She has an older half-brother, Frankie Grande, who is an entertainer and producer, and she has a close relationship with her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Grande. Grande’s family had moved from New York to Florida before her birth, and her parents separated when she was approximately nine or ten years old.
As a child, Grande performed with the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theater, playing her first role as the title character in their version of the musical Annie. She also performed in their musicals The Wizard of Oz and Beauty and the Beast. At the age of eight, she performed at a karaoke lounge on a cruise ship and with various orchestras such as South Florida’s Philharmonic, Florida Sunshine Pops and Symphonic Orchestras, and she made her first national television appearance singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” for the Florida Panthers. During this time she attended Florida’s Pine Crest School and later North Broward Preparatory School.
By age 13, she became serious about pursuing a music career, although she still concentrated on theater. When she first arrived in Los Angeles, California to meet with her managers, she expressed a desire to record an R&B album: “I was like, ‘I want to make an R&B album,’ They were like ‘Um, that’s a helluva goal! Who is going to buy a 14-year-old’s R&B album?!'” In 2008, Grande was cast in the supporting role of cheerleader Charlotte in the musical 13 on Broadway, for which she won a National Youth Theatre Association Award. When she joined the musical, Grande left North Broward Preparatory School, but continued to be enrolled; the school sent materials to her so she could study with tutors. She also sang various times at the New York City jazz club Birdland.
PERSONAL LIFE
Health issues and personal beliefs
Grande stated that she struggled with hypoglycemia, which she attributed to poor dietary habits. She also suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety following the Manchester Arena bombing; she nearly pulled out of her performance in the 2018 broadcast A Very Wicked Halloween due to anxiety. Grande also stated she has been in therapy for over a decade, having first seen a mental health professional shortly after her parents divorced.
Grande was raised Roman Catholic but abandoned the church during the pontificate of Benedict XVI, citing opposition to its stance on homosexuality and noting that her half-brother Frankie is gay. She has followed Kabbalah teachings since the age of twelve, along with Frankie, believing “the basis lies in the idea that if you’re kind to others, good things will happen to you.” Several of her songs, such as “Break Your Heart Right Back”, are supportive of LGBT rights.
In November 2019, Grande endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders’ second presidential bid.
Relationships
Grande met actor Graham Phillips in the cast of the musical 13 in 2008 and dated him until 2011.
After recording “The Way” with Mac Miller in 2012, the two began dating in 2016. The two collaborated on the single “My Favorite Part”, released in September 2016, on Miller’s album The Divine Feminine (2016). The relationship ended by May 2018. On September 7, 2018, Miller died due to an accidental drug overdose; Grande expressed grief over his death on social media and called him her “dearest friend.”
In May 2018, Grande began dating actor and comedian Pete Davidson and announced their engagement in June of that year. Davidson and Grande called off their engagement and ended their relationship in October 2018.
The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article on 4 July 2020. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
