By LAUREN KASZUBA
Co-Arts Editor
It’s only been about two months since Ariana Grande released “Sweetener,” her fourth studio album, and she’s already onto the next chapter of her career.
“thank u, next,” was released on Nov. 3 as the lead single to her next album. On Nov. 1, in a ‘Saturday Night Live’ promotional video for the Nov. 3 episode, her now-ex Pete Davidson jokingly proposed to Maggie Rogers, the musical guest for that episode. Grande didn’t find any humor in the video.
“For somebody who claims to hate relevancy u sure love clinging to it huh,” she subtweeted. “Thank u, next,” was the follow up tweet, and after that, “k, that’s the last time we do that,” was tweeted. All of these tweets were deleted, however.
The morning of the episode’s premiere, Grande tweeted hints regarding album and song, saying that fans would get the song first. Thirty minutes before the episode’s premiere, Grande released “thank u, next.”
In the beginning of the song, Grande doesn’t waste any time thanking her exes for everything they taught her. She took a humble, grateful approach with this one. The lyrics to the song begin as follows: “Thought I’d end up with Sean / but he wasn’t a match / Wrote some songs about Ricky / now I listen and laugh / Even almost got married / and for Pete I’m so thankful / Wish I could say ‘thank you’ to Malcolm / ‘cause he was angel.”
Over the past year or two, it is no secret that Grande has been through some tough times. In May 2017, a suicide bomber attacked her concert in Manchester. Just this past September, her ex-boyfriend, rapper Mac Miller, died of a drug overdose. Much of the blame for his death was placed on Grande.
“Sweetener” was the beginning of a new chapter in regards to seeing life with a pair of fresh eyes. It was, and is, about love, happiness, and strength. “thank u, next,” however, seems to keep up with these ongoing themes. This song shares Grande’s grace and toughness during a time in her life where it was truly needed. She’s not afraid to share that with the world, either.
A friend of mine at a different college had told me the other day a few people mentioned that they thought the song pertained to Grande singing about how she was just “onto the next guy.” I can’t say I understand this point of view. The song’s entirety is her describing how grateful she is for what her exes taught her. She thanks her exes for teaching her lessons and she anticipates the next lesson she’s going to learn from the next guy. I believe that’s what she is trying to get across, rather than “Oh, this guy didn’t work out, onto the next one, who wants to be my boyfriend now?
Overall, I believe that Grande has handled all the events life has tackled her with, with grace. She is a humble, grateful woman who continually uses music to help her get through extremely tough times. “thank u, next” is a great example of this, and not to mention, it’s a catchy song.
Grande launches her “Sweetener World Tour” on March 18, 2019, at the Times Union Center.
