thank u, next may be the ultimate breakup song — but there was a time when Ariana Grande was leaning towards something more like thank u, continue!
In a recent interview on The Zach Sang Show, the 25-year-old admitted that the iconic track was almost a very different song — one with a happy ending — because she and Pete Davidson were still “on and off” while she was writing it.
Photo: Ariana Reveals Her Natural Hair!
Recalling how her tumultuous relationship spawned three different versions of the smash hit, the Sweetener songstress explained:
“In my relationship by the time things were, like, up and down and on and off and so I didn’t know what was gonna happen. And then we got back together and so I had to make a different version of it. And then we broke up again and so we ended up going with that version… There’s a version where I was getting married. There’s a version where I’m not getting married. There’s a version with nothing, we’re not talking about anything.”
Throughout it all, though, Ari had a feeling which version would make the final cut:
“But we all knew the first version was gonna be the version we ultimately went with… I just wanted to cover all the bases.”
Way to keep your options open, gurl!
Related: Mac Miller & Cazzie David Connected After Their Splits From Ari & Pete!
But perhaps the most grueling part of the recording process for the singer was deciding whether or not to name her ex’s in the first verse. She dished:
“I’m, like, super shy when it comes to, like, pitching wild things. And so I was like, ‘Is it, like, insane if I name people and thank them directly in the song?’ And Taylor was like, ‘Well, b*tch. It’s gonna be a thing if you do, but I think it’s brilliant… I think it’s special and yes. Do it. Right now. Like, let’s do it.'”
The rest is herstory.
After she recorded that version of the song, it all “became super real” for the pop star — and super cathartic. She recalled:
“Then we did it and I was like, ‘Wow. This is really, really, really special and it feels really like something, you know?’… Putting it in a song makes it very, ‘OK. Cool. We definitely just closed that chapter.’ You know what I mean?”
But she still wanted to record a backup version… just in case:
“Then I went home and slept on it and we came back and I was like, ‘OK, let’s make another version just in case without the names.'”
Instead of naming Pete, Big Sean, Ricky Alvarez, and the late Mac Miller, the Nickelodeon alum said the alternate version had her singing something along the lines of, “They say I’m too young” or “I got too many boyfriends,” adding:
“I was just talking about what people say about me. Still. So it still was like, OK I’m embracing my mistakes and what I’ve done and everything that’s contributed to who I am, but it was just less direct. And everyone — including me — was kinda like, ‘This is not the version.’ Me as I was doing it was like, ‘This is not the version.’ I was also trying to be protective, you know?”
Sure, she may have looked confident AF flipping through her exes in the song’s music video, but, deep down, the idea of putting her exes into a song apparently terrified her.
Related: Ariana Clarifies Angry Grammys Tweets After Cardi B Beats Mac
She said later in the interview:
“It was a big risk and a very scary thing to do because it is my life. I understand to a lot of people I’m not a real person. It’s easy to kind of see me as a song or a picture or a thing that kind of exists in their head and they know what they know and that’s it. But at the end of the day, these are people and relationships… it’s real sh*t to me. It is real life. And I spent a lot of time with each of those people, like, learning and sh*t. It was, like, scary to put in a song.”
Thankfully, the risk paid off: the song hit No. 1 on Billboard and everyone in Ariana’s life “has been very supportive of it.”
But no one loves the track more than Joan Grande, the singer’s mom and biggest relationship critic. She said:
“My mom was, like, she’s never been happier. My mom was like, ‘Oh this is just the best song I’ve heard in my life.’ Because everybody who knows me knows how Joan Grande has felt about every relationship I’ve ever been in and she has been so supportive and patient and bit her tongue, you know, been a fantastic mother… That song is for my mom’s closure and also as a thank you to her for helping me through a lot of this sh*t… It was just a beautiful moment for her.”
It all worked out in the end… for Ariana, at least!
[Image via YouTube/Adriana M. Barraza/WENN]
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