Ariana Grande

Armed with a mesmerizing, nimble soprano—and a vocal register often likened to those of Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera—Ariana Grande began her career as a child star on Broadway and Nickelodeon before transforming into a pop and R&B powerhouse. Instantly recognizable thanks to her signature ponytail and breezy self-confidence, Grande, born in Florida in 1993, has developed a slyly sexual personal brand that has, like that of the Spice Girls before her, become an iconic image of young female power. But Grande is more than a symbol: Over the course of several albums and scores of hit singles across the genre spectrum—beginning with 2013’s R&B crooner “The Way” (featuring Mac Miller) and continuing through to an EDM collab with Zedd (“Break Free”), slinky retro-soul (“Dangerous Woman”), and diva trap-pop (“7 rings”)—she has consistently outshined her male collaborators and deftly parlayed her stardom into activism. An LGBTQ+ advocate and outspoken feminist, she has long used her platform to confront misogyny, sexism, homophobia, and bullying, spreading a message of love over all. Her Max Martin-produced smash “no tears left to cry,” an escapist dance-floor triumph released a year after a deadly terrorist attack at one of her concerts in 2017, and its subsequent album, Sweetener, sent a message of hope and healing, with a dose of hear-me-roar attitude.  Grande’s pop vision has since focused inward, using music as a therapeutic tool for spiritual growth. After experiencing a devastating personal loss with the death of ex-boyfriend Mac Miller in 2018, she re-emerged with 2019’s thank u, next, an elegiac album that was as therapeutic as it was dance-ready, with a title track that sends off ex-lovers with a gentle kiss on the cheek. The following year’s pandemic-written Positions highlights Grande’s mellifluous vocals and her desire to be content in love—even when boasting about her sexual prowess (as on the cheeky “34+35”), the real star of her heart is her own self. And on her lush, auto-fictitious 2024 concept album, eternal sunshine, she glides with a coy smile and a heavenly whistle through the emotions of a woman betrayed, perceived, and adored, with a short wave to critics and tabloids on the pulsing house groove of “yes, and?”