Ariana Grande Has a Song About Mac Miller on Her New Album
Ariana Grande’s next album will include a song about Mac Miller.
The pop powerhouse graces the cover of Billboard’s Women in Music issue. During the interview, she opens up about her upcoming album Thank U, Next, which will include a song inspired by her late boyfriend Mac Miller.
In 2011, she met the Pittsburgh rapper. They quickly became friends and collaborated on 2013’s “The Way,” the lead single off her debut album Yours Truly. “When we made ‘The Way,’ I was like, ‘Oh, wow, I’m onto something here,'” says Grande, who recently got a Miller-inspired tattoo on her foot. “It felt like, ‘I should do this forever.'”
She previewed a new song about her ex for Billboard, but did not say much about it.
Grande is now putting the finishing touches on Thank U, Next, which was mostly written in a week and recorded in two weeks. “This [album’s] not particularly uplifting,” she says. “A lot of it sounds really upbeat, but it’s actually a super sad chapter.”
The album will also include a “party-ready” remake of “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music, as well as “7 Rings,” a song recorded after a champagne-infused visit to Tiffany & Co. with her girlfriends.
“They got us very tipsy, so we bought seven engagement rings, and when I got back to the studio I gave everybody a friendship ring,” she says.
Last month, the lead single and title track became Grande’s first No. 1 on the Hot 100 and earned her critical acclaim as well. “I got myself to a place where I would be able to do things like drop a surprise record and have it be the biggest single I’ve ever had.”
The surprise drop has made her rethink the way she releases music. “My dream has always been to be–obviously not a rapper, but, like, to put out music in the way that a rapper does. I feel like there are certain standards that pop women are held to that men aren’t,” she says. “It’s just like, ‘Bruh, I just want to fucking talk to my fans and sing and write music and drop it the way these boys do. Why do they get to make records like that and I don’t?’ So I do and I did and I am, and I will continue to.”