Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson dated got engaged and broke the internet all within five months. After their break up, Grande dropped her most successful song and first number one hit “Thank U, Next.” The song smashed streaming records and become a certified bop instantly.
Now with her fifth album out, Thank U, Next, Grande opened up about her smash album-title single to Zach Sang Show.
The Grammy award-winning singer revealed that she was unsure if she should name drop her ex-boyfriends.
“I’m super shy when it comes to pitching wild things. So I was like, ‘Is it insane if I name people and thank them directly in the song?’ And Tayla [Parx] was like, ‘B***h, it’s gonna be a thing if you do, but I think it’s brilliant and it’s special, and yes — do it.'”
She recorded to the song with the names and slept on the idea. Grande decided to record a second version of the song without any traces of her ex-boyfriends in it.
That version of “Thank U, Next” is about what people and the press says about her love life. “It was still embracing my mistakes and what I’ve done, and how everything has contributed to how I am, but it was just less direct,” said Grande.
Grande said the opening lyrics were: “They say I’m too young, had too many boyfriends.”
She then recorded a third version, because at the time she and Davidson were on and off. After the initial recording, she and Davidson were off but they got back on soon after.
Grande said: “In my relationship at the time, things were so up and down and on and off, and so I didn’t know what was gonna happen. Then we got back together, so I had to make a different version of it. And then we broke up again so we ended up going back [to the original version.]
This is the first time Grande revealed that she and Davidson broke up multiple times. In the third version of the song, she mentions marrying Davidson.
“There’s a version where I was getting married [to Pete], a version where I’m not getting married. But we all knew that the first version was gonna be the version that we ultimately went with. I just wanted to cover all the bases,” she revealed.
Even Grande wasn’t sure if the wedding was going to happen. Grande went on to say that her ex-boyfriends Big Sean and Ricky Alvarez liked the song. When asked what Davidson’s thoughts were she simply said, “The people I’m in touch with liked it.”
Okay so there were three versions of “Thank U, Next,” Grande wasn’t sure if she and Davidson were ever going to marry and she’s not in touch with Davidson. Good to know.
Watch the full interview below:
