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12 Days Of Perezmas: 1 Wild Year For Ariana Grande!

ariana grande 2018 best year

On the first day of Perezmas, pop culture gave to us… ONE wild year for Ariana Grande!
The songstress has been in the public eye long before her Nickelodeon days, but this year was, for better or worse, the Year of Ari. 2018 taught her love, it taught her heartbreak, it taught her tragedy she’d never experienced before. Most importantly, it taught the 25-year-old how to use all that as fuel to make chart-topping music.
Ariana started out the year on a quiet note, however, lying low with family and loved ones, including her then-boyfriend Mac Miller, after wrapping up her massive Dangerous Woman Tour in September 2017 — and it wasn’t because she simply needed a break.
In an interview with Paper magazine later in the year, the pop superstar revealed that her anxiety had reached an “intense peak” in the final months of 2017 after she ended her tour, recalling:

“I’ve always had anxiety, I’ve had anxiety for years. But when I got home from tour it reached a very different, intense peak. It became physical and I was not going out at all and I felt like I was outside of my body.”

This borderline-crippling anxiety likely had something to due with the deadly Manchester terror attacks that took place at her concert venue the previous May, claiming the lives of over a dozen of her fans.
The songstress’s physical symptoms continued through February, causing her to pull out of a scheduled performance at the Brit Awards. While Ari was set to perform in honor of the Manchester attacks, her doctors said she was too ill to go through with it. A source said at the time:

“She wasn’t even allowed to get on the plane – that’s how ill she was. She’s at home resting now but she’s devastated to miss it.”

Thankfully, the following month saw the starlet slowly coming out of hiding. 
On March 4, Ari made her first public appearance in six months at Madonna’s Oscars afterparty alongside Mac. Later in the month, she made her first concert appearance of 2018 for the March for Our Lives rally in Washington D.C.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=41&v=B046thU7i4U
Ariana hails from Boca Raton, Florida, the town next to Parkland; the site of the devastating school shooting that served as the launching pad for the star studded protest the pop star took part in.
While easing a nation’s pain with her voice, Ariana was making her way back into the public eye. Little did fans know, the songstress was also in the process of attempting to heal her own pain; something we would learn in April, a.k.a. the Ari-pocalypse.
With a single emoji, she returned to Twitter on April 17 to tease new music:


Three days later, the unwitting society was ambushed with no tears left to cry, and, hours after that, a music video for the soon-to-be smash single:

Though the track is notably upbeat, its lyrics signify an emotional response to the terror attacks that had taken place not even a full year before. Ariana’s music had become a personal diary for the tragedy she and her fans had endured.
As we would come to learn, her music for the rest of the year would follow the same journal-entry format. Case in point: the month of May, when Ari’s love life — much like the promo art for her upcoming album — turned upside down.

Before we knew it, the singer had broken up with Mac — allegedly due to his substance abuse issues — and was reportedly dating Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson; a “casual” relationship both stars would soon confirm, and relentlessly remind fans about, on social media.
Right when reports began circulating that the two were dating, Pete and Ari began flirting with each other via Twitter and Instagram for all the internet to see. A whole week of that went by before Pete posted a photo of the two of them together wearing Hogwarts robes — making it clear they were both an item and HUGE Harry Potter nerds:
ariana grande pete davidson
A day later, Ariana shared a cuddly pic of herself with Pete on her own IG, complete with a caption that fans would later learn were the lyrics to a song aptly titled pete davidson:

For the first time in a while, the songstress appeared over-the-moon. But it was a little too much for some fans and critics who took issue with the abrupt boyfriend jump. Eventually, the criticism became a little too much for Ariana.
In late May, she snapped back at a Twitic who held her responsible for Mac’s recent DUI wreck, writing that “shaming/blaming women for a man’s inability to keep his shit together is a very major problem.”


Ari’s revelation that she was the subject of Cinderella also caused fans to look up the lyrics to Mac’s song — and become rattled by their findings:


Besides feeling generally liberated, it was clear Ariana was particularly unbothered by the Pete hate — a collective distain that was, apparently, only beginning.
Just a few weeks later, rumors started spreading that the two were ENGAGED about a month after they started dating. Ariana teased the engagement news on her Instagram story June 15, posting a video of her singing and showing off her enormous engagement ring.
Yup, a wedding was coming (or so we thought)… as was the songstress’s next single. The same day Pete confirmed their engagement news on The Tonight Show, Ariana released the light is coming featuring Nicki Minaj.

In his interview, the comedian told Jimmy Fallon that random guys had come up to him on the street and said that his shock engagement to the pop princess had given them “hope.” Just like the titular light in Ariana’s single, Pete had come to give back everything the darkness stole.
Over the next few months, the lovebirds would be spotted out and about everywhere (and, in case you missed them on the streets, all over social media); while Ariana would release yet another powerful single, God is a woman — which came with a music video that brilliantly illustrated her larger-than-life media presence.

In August, Ariana promoted her engagement just as much as she promoted her soon-to-be released album Sweetener. She explained on GMA:

“I mean, it’s just a feeling. [Pete] just ticks every box, and just gets better every day, and I’m very grateful for him. Life is beautiful.”

Nothing could bring her down. Not even the fans who refused to play the pete davidson interlude on her album. Those fans, she had very little patience for:

Haters in Arianators’ clothing aside, the rest of August was rather sweet. Her forth studio album, Sweetener, would debut at No. 1 on Billboard following its August 17 release. The album’s songs also collected 126.7 million on-demand audio streams in its debut frame, making it the largest streaming week for a pop album by a woman.
The same week, she picked up a Best Pop Video VMA for no tears left to cry, proving that she was riding an unbeatable high…


But it all came crashing down weeks later. In early September, Ariana — along with the world — was rocked with tragic news: Mac Miller, her ex-boyfriend of two years, had died of an apparent drug overdose.
The singer was flying when she received the news that Mac had died at the age of 26. Three days later, she posted a powerful, caption-less tribute to the late rapper on her Instagram:

If the sudden death of a beloved former partner wasn’t a big enough toll to take, Ariana then had to deal with being blamed for his death. Fans were worried when the singer took to Twitter later that month to beg for “one okay day,” venting that she was “so tired”:


While many feared this was a cry for help or some kind of emotional breakdown, the pop star was really just asking for something she felt she wasn’t allowed to have: a moment of weakness. 
That very brief moment apparently made Ariana reassess the direction her life was going in, which turned out to be bad news for her then-fiance. On October 15, it was reported that she dumped Pete and called off their engagement.
Days after Pete confirmed their breakup during a stand up set, Ariana made it clear their split was permanent by revealing that she had covered up one of her tattoos of the comedian. It was a shocking (but not-so-shocking) breakup that proved to be ripe for new song material.
Thanks to a girls’ trip to the jewelry store and lots of champagne, that new song would be thank u, next — a title Ariana teased while shading an SNL promo in which Pete poked fun at himself over the failed engagement. Days later, she would release the breakup single — in which she lists off her most notable exes, including the “angel” who recently passed — to the masses.
We had reached an odd Upside Down world where Ariana’s personal traumas and career success were completely intertwined. She wasn’t just controlling her narrative, she was lyricizing it, packaging it with a high-fructose beat, and taking it to the top of the charts.


In mid-November, thank u, next became Ariana’s first song to debut on top of the Billboard chart; the 32nd song in history to accomplish such a feat.
To make matters bitter-sweeter (bitter-sweetener?), Ari topped her musical kiss-off with the most iconic music video of the year — if not the decade.

Lest we forget, the visuals for thank u, next included scenes from films like 13 Going On 30, Legally Blonde, Mean Girls, and Bring It On, and managed to spark enthusiasm and praise from most of the stars of those movies.

Ariana’s ascension to pop culture phenomenon was complete. But she was far from the happily-ever-after ending of an early 2000s female-led comedy.
In December, the songstress released a rhythmic ballad, imagine, which many fans believed was about the late Mac. At the same time, Pete was detailing some very intense struggles with suicidal thoughts and depression on his Instagram; something clearly rooted in their recent breakup.
One of the comedian’s posts even made Ariana rush to 30 Rock to be by his side, though he reportedly refused to see her. For the second time in a year, the singer was held responsible for an ex’s apparent mental descent.
It was clear Ariana’s Sweetener days were over as quickly as they began. She had returned to a solemn state of mind and couldn’t do anything but sing about it — so sing she did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGeH483gNOg
If 2017 was the year Ari needed to be a beacon of light for her fans, 2018 was the year she became the light for herself. Singing her way through the highest of highs and lowest of lows, the singer proved what a resilient powerhouse she really was.
Over the past 12 months, this woman went from a star to a full blown celestial body — and her expansion is just beginning. This is Ariana Grande’s universe, Perezious readers. Let’s see (and hear) how high she can go.

[Image via YouTube/Instagram/WENN.]

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Dec 25, 2018 06:00am PDT

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