The Life of Ariana Grande

By Selene Yi

Ariana Grande, born on June 26, 1993, is a world-famous singer, songwriter, and actress. She is best known for her albums and singing, having held many tours and concerts and established new records. Grande has six discographies and a few other albums and collabs. Though she is now taking a break from music, focusing more on her other passions and life as well as her cosmetics brand: r.e.m. beauty, she is still considered one of the most talented music icons.

Early Life

Grande was born and raised in Boca Raton, Florida to Joan Grande and Edward Butera. Her name was inspired by Princess Oriana from Felix the Cat and the shortened name of an Italian Car manufacturer Ferrari. She has an older half-brother, Frankie, a performer and producer. Grande then did musicals at her local theater, starting off with Annie.

On Nickelodeon as Cat Valentine

Ariana Grande was a cast member of Victorious, a sitcom about Tori Vega’s life at Hollywood Arts School along with her friends, starring as Cat Valentine. She had to dye her hair red as the director thought it would match her character’s personality well. Though the show led Grande to be a teen star, she was more interested in her music career rather than acting. In August 2010, when the first season of Victorious concluded, she began working on her debut album. As she focused on music, she uploaded several covers of famous songs on her Youtube channel. The CEO of Republic Records who saw her videos and was impressed with them contracted her, leading to Grande's first single, “Put Your Hearts Up”.

First Album: Yours Truly, the Beginning of Grande’s Music Career

Ever since Grande began working on her album in the summer of 2010, she recorded it for three years, soon releasing it on August 30, 2013. The album was originally titled Daydreamin, but it was changed to Yours Truly for she thought the album felt like a love letter. In September 2013, Yours Truly reached Number one on the US Billboard 200 albums chart, making her the 15th female artist to have her first album establish such a record. She won the New Artist of the Year Award because of this album. In December 2013, Grande also released her first Christmas EP with four songs, Christmas Kisses.

Sixth and Most Recent Album: Positions

Grande started working on her sixth album in January 2020 and thus released several collaborations including “Stuck With U” with Justin Bieber and “Rain On Me” with Lady Gaga. On October 14th, she revealed that her new album would be released in the same month and revealed the name of the album: Positions. The title song, Positions, was released on October 23rd followed by 34+35 and a 34+35 remix. Contrary to her previous album, this album addresses topics about love and caring, thus making the album have a much lighter and softer mood compared to the previous one, Thank U, Next.

Current Life

Recently, Grande founded her cosmetics company: REM Beauty. Her first chapter, named “Ultraviolet”, was dropped in November 2021 and made a profit of $ 1 million in less than 24 hours. Her second chapter was titled “Goodnight n Go”, named after her song “Goodnight n Go”. She portrayed Riley Bina in the Netflix film “Don’t Look Up” and will appear as Glinda in the upcoming movie “Wicked”. She also announced her engagement with Dalton Gomez on December 20th, 2020, and got married on May 15th, 2021. Soon she appeared as one of the judges on “The Voice” season 21 and made remarkable appearances. Although Ariana Grande hasn’t been as active in her career compared to last year as she is officially taking a break in music, many people still have high expectations for her music career and REM beauty.