The child star Ariana Grande Butera started her career at a very young age – on the musical 13 from Broadway. But it was only in 2010, with the Nickelodeon series Victorious, that the world knew her name. Playing the redhead Cat Valentine, the show showed us not just how good of an actress Ariana was, but also left us really impressed by her voice.
With the end of the program in 2013, her debut album Yours Truly was released with a good reception from the public and the specialized critics. A year after, on August 22, 2014, her sophomore album My Everything premiered all around world, marking the singer’s career even bigger and elevating her to the pop diva spot.
the iconic hits
The album, following the footsteps of her last one, peaked at number one at the Billboard Top 200 and the singles made another six appearances at U.S.’ most acclaimed charts. The first actual big hit of this era and of Ari’s career, was the collaboration with rapper Iggy Azalea, “Problem”.
Produced by one of the most memorable names of pop music, Max Martin, the track is an 80s influenced pop with some dance music in the chorus, which caught the attention of the public very quickly. The music video was one of the most watched of its year, and the singer’s outfit later on became very famous around the world.
After the release and success of “Problem”, Ariana put on a high ponytail, an iconic rose bodysuit and a knee-high white boot to fight some aliens in space, while singing along to her second single, “Break Free”. The song was an immediate success and till this day is a modern classic. (And, of course, how can we as Brazilians forget about the iconic video of a man dancing on top of a bus in the middle of the streets to the sound of this song?)
Later on, she, Nicki Minaj and Jessie J united to release one of the most successful female collaborations of all times: “Bang Bang”. The music video and the lyrics showed us a more mature and sexy version of Ariana. She had already done that with some outfits and performances for her last two singles, but it was with two powerful and strong women that the world would understand that the sweet little redhead from Nickelodeon wasn’t what Ari wanted from her career – we would also continue to see this even more in her third album, titled Dangerous Woman.
Speaking on collaborations, it was in this era that our favorite duo did their first song together. In September of 2014, Ariana and The Weeknd gave us the music video for “Love Me Harder”, a song that had already come out in the original version of the album, back in August. Their voices together caught the public eye in a second and everyone became obsessed with their friendship and music collaborations (and we still are, to be honest).
To end the global hits, she gave us one of the most beautiful songs of her discography, “One Last Time”. The singer herself did not expect this to be so meaningful to her and her fans, but it was after the Manchester tragedy that the song received another meaning. It became an anthem dedicated to the victims of the terrorist attack at her concert in 2017. She always speaks up about this and has a beautiful trajectory with healing.
the looks were impeccable
Everyone knows that style knowledge and pop divas walk side by side, and our short queen does not stay out of it. The singer’s sense of fashion started to get noticed by the public when she abandoned the red hair and started to wear her signature thigh high boots. The iconic ponytail is of course her most memorable hairstyle, but the cat ears tiaras were a huge thing back in 2014, and she was all about the trends at the time. Making appearances in awards, performances and events with those, her fans started using them as a way of projecting their admiration for the artist and became a trademark from the era.
About her red carpet outfits, she evolved a lot compared to other years, and started working with more sophisticated brands, giving us fantastic looks, like the 2014 Grammys Award floral dress from Dolce & Gabbana, or the all leather skirt and top by Moschino on the MTV Video Music Award of the same year.
More memorable than her red carpet looks, were her music video ones. The “Problem” video was iconic for so many reasons, but the black and white dress is remembered until this day. The “Love me Harder” all black outfit does not stay behind, and everyone till this day speaks about the entire look. And of course, the bodysuit from “Break Free” made us want to fight real life aliens just to wear the model.
the honeymoon tour
Announced at the end of 2014, this tour was short compared to the others. At the time, she toured around North America, parts of Europe and Asia, and a few countries in South America, including Brazil, where she finished her tour at Allianz Park, in São Paulo.
Even though it was performed in arenas, it was very intimate and, as the artist said, it was a time when she connected with her fans and appreciated the art of her last two records. Still, it showed us lovely moments that she shared with the big public in a Youtube series called the Honeymoon Diaries, a mini documentary about the tour.
This would go on to become a trademark of hers, releasing documentaries of her future concert tours, like the Dangerous Woman Diaries, released in 2018, also on Youtube, and later on the Netflix original, Excuse me, I love you, about her most recent tour. Now, we shall wait and see what she is preparing for her next world tour!
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The article above was edited by Mariana Aguiar.
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