Pop singer Ariana Grande released her fifth studio album, “Thank U, Next,” on Friday, Feb. 8. The highly-anticipated album was named after one of Grande’s most recent hit songs, “Thank U, Next.” Before the release of the album, Grande released other songs including “no tears left to cry,” “breathin'” and “7 Rings.”. The release of each of these singles was extremely successful, with their music videos collectively earning over 950,000,000 views since Feb. 5, 2019.
Grande frequently mentioned the making of her fifth album since she released her fourth album, “Sweetener,” in August 2018. She posted the track list on her instagram page in January, and announced her Sweetener World Tour in October 2018. Some of the songs on the upcoming album include “needy”, “NASA”, “bloodline”, and “fake smile”.
When asked about her new music, Grande explained to Billboard that the new album would have “deep, bass-driven bangers with trap beats alternating with airy, sad ballads,”contrasting the jazzy, upbeat tone of “Sweetener.” Grande frequently updated her followers on the progress of the album until its completion date, posting snippets of beats and captioning her photos with lyrics from various songs in “Thank U, Next.” Grande broke several records with the releases of her singles, including Most Streams in one week for a female artist in the U.S, most plays on a YouTube Video in 24 Hours and First Female to have 2 Singles on the Hot 100 Top 10, with one being first.
Grande also made headlines by having 3 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, being in first, second, and third on the charts. The album features 12 songs, each of which highlights various topics such as heartbreak, self–love and getting over a relationship. Each song has a unique beat from the others on the tracklist, which is what makes the album so great. There is a song on the album for every mood – some have fast-paced trap-influenced beats, while others are dreamy, catchy songs with a feel-good melody.
On the day of the album release, Grande also uploaded the “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored” music video to YouTube to promote her 3rd single from the album. The video highlighted the idea of self-love and how others’ relationships can affect one’s self-image. Grande also released new merchandise for the album, including cassettes, vinyls and pullovers with “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored” graphics named after the smash hit single.
“Thank U, Next” was a wildly successful release of Grande’s, with the entire album having over one billion streams on Spotify just one week after being released. The album was worth the wait, and after seeing the success of “Thank U, Next,” fans are even more excited to hear Grande’s sixth studio album. The pop star showed she isn’t to be underestimated and that she has unmistakable talent through the release of this album. It is definitely safe to say that “Thank U, Next” is one of the best albums of the year so far and that Grande’s hard work shined on each track.
