Ariana Grande

About

With her four-octave vocal acrobatics and iconic image, American singer, songwriter, and actress Ariana Grande has solidified her place as one of the quintessential pop stars of her generation, racking up stacks of awards and chart records in the process. Emerging in the early 2010s with the hit single "The Way," Grande was primed to follow in the footsteps of her biggest influences, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, due in part to her powerhouse vocals. With its Babyface production, her debut, Yours Truly, underscored her debt to '90s R&B, but Grande quickly incorporated hip-hop and EDM into her sound. "Problem," a 2014 smash duet with Iggy Azalea, was the first indication of her development, an evolution reinforced by the hits "Bang Bang" and "Love Me Harder." Grande maintained her popularity with 2016's Dangerous Woman, then really hit her stride with 2018's Sweetener and its swift sequel, Thank U, Next, whose title track sat atop the U.S. singles chart for seven weeks. That achievement was quickly equaled by the album's glitzy second single, "7 Rings," and later with "Positions," the lead single from 2020's R&B-heavy album of the same name. After four years without an album -- a relative eternity considering her turn-of-the-decade blitz -- Grande returned with Eternal Sunshine, which she recorded while shooting the film version of Broadway's Wicked.