YMMV / Ariana Grande

• Award Snub: When Billie Eilish won Album of the Year at the 2020 Grammy Awards, she said outright during her acceptance speech that she thought the award should've instead gone to Ariana for Thank U, Next.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Many fans considered the "screaming beavers" in the "God is a woman" music video to be this.
• Broken Base: The sample of the man saying "You wouldn't let anybody speak and instead—" looped endlessly on "the light is coming" is a hot button topic among fans who argue whether the sample ruins the song and is very distracting or if it's fine and sends an important message.^note The sample comes from that of a man shouting at Senator Arlen Specter at a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania in 2009. As Pharrell Williams produced this song, he borrowed the same town hall meeting he sampled on his song "Lemon" under his act NERD.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Oddly enough, with her own Sam & Cat co-star Jennette McCurdy. What doesn't help are the rumors that they didn't get along backstage, which contributed to Sam & Cat's cancellation, even though she and Jennette don't even harbor any animosity to one another.^note Jennette resented the fact that she frequently had to carry the whole show due to Ariana's busy music career while Jennette never got the same opportunities, but that resentment was aimed squarely at the producers.
  • Her fanbase does NOT get along with the Lambs. This is mainly due to Ariana fans seeing her as a Spiritual Successor to Mariah Carey (or flat out refusing to acknowledge the similarities between the singers, despite Ariana admitting that Mariah influenced her) while Mariah's fanbase sees her as an annoying knock off of their favorite singer.
    • Though nowadays, Mariah and Ariana seem to actually be getting along quite swimmingly. The rivalry has definitely died down after they collaborated with Jennifer Hudson on "Oh Santa!" where they both even pulled off whistle notes together.
  • There's a lot of tension between Arianators and fans of Selena Gomez, as well as fans of Taylor Swift.
• Fanon: Some fans consider the meaning of "God Is A Woman" to be about God taking a female form as A Form You Are Comfortable With instead of the traditional Grandpa God form that they think is God's true form.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Ariana's fans got along with The Wanted's fanbase pretty well when Ariana and Nathan began dating.
  • Her song "yes, and?" has resulted in a three-way connection between her, Madonna, and Beyoncé. This is because "yes, and?" is a 90's styled ballroom house track heavily inspired by Madonna's "Vogue"; additionally, a year and a half prior, Beyoncé released a popular remix of her Billboard-topping hit "Break My Soul" that samples "Vogue" itself. It helps that both "yes, and?" and "Break My Soul" are both about female empowerment in the face of stress and adversity. Tons of mashups of "yes, and?", "Vogue", and "Break My Soul (Queens Remix)" were made within hours of the former's release.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • "no tears left to cry". As the next year and album proved, there were still plenty.
  • "pete davidson", after they broke up.
  • The lyrics to "thank u, next" became this after her separation and eventual divorce from her ex-husband Dalton Gomez in 2023.
  • "break up with your girlfriend, I'm bored", after the alleged homewrecking controversy surrounding her and her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater. The song has also recently been used to reinforce rumors about her allegedly pursuing men in relationships.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: "thank u, next" is this after she finally got married.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: "Popular Song" samples "Popular" from Wicked. Years later, it was announced she would be playing Glinda in the movie version and thus singing the song.
• Ho Yay:
  • Ariana Grande stealing her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend in "break up, with your girlfriend, I'm bored".
  • A lot with her best friend and Victorious co-star Elizabeth Gillies. A leaked video shows them even sharing a test kiss for fun.
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: She as an artist has become this with her detractors particularly after the release of "thank u, next".
• Memetic Mutation:
  • At the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in London, during a performance of one of her songs, she gets hit by a model's angel wings. Ariana's reaction to being hit has already gone viral. Here are a few, examples.
  • Her song “thank u, next” has the line “one taught me love, one taught me patience, and one taught me pain” which many people took and applied to TV characters and regular day situations.
  • Her spray tanning is a source of many memes, especially when it comes to comparing to how she looked back in her Victorious days.
  • The Ariana Grande School of Diction^Explanation Coined by Jeremy from Music Video Sins, Ariana's enunciation can be a bit difficult to understand sometimes which led to jokes about how she runs a school for strange diction. Fans also make jokes about misheard lyrics and what it sounds like she's actually singing. Ariana is aware of her enunciation and rolls with it.
  • "YUH."^Explanation Ariana says this in a lot of her songs that fans have likened it to her Catchphrase.
  • "Excuse me, umm..........I love you."^Explanation A lyric from "R.E.M." became a meme where the pause between the "um" and "I love you" is edited to be as long as uncomfortably possible. Ariana seems to have acknowledged the popularity as she even named her Netflix documentary after this lyric.
  • This '80's-style remix of Into You lead to comments pretending that Ariana Grande actually made the song in the '80's and was an active singer at the time. This snowballed into various other jokes and formed their own canon storyline. ^Explanation She dated Prince, but cheated on him with Michael Jackson. At some point, she got high and was run over by Madonna, resulting in her death.
  • And what about it?
• Moe: Ariana's youthful and bubbly looks and personality won the hearts of many and endeared them to her music.
• Paranoia Fuel: These lyrics from the track "Touch It" sound frightening once you stop and think about it:
  Ariana: How do you know I'm breathing when I'm holding my breath?
• Rainbow Lens: The song "Break Free" has been interpreted by some of her fanbase as a coming out anthem.
• She Really Can Act: As it says in the main article, many people are surprised that she started out as a Broadway and television actress, having started out in an Annie production as the title character among other things.
• Signature Song: At first, "The Way" was considered this, then "God is a woman" was a huge success, and then "thank u, next" was unanimously considered by most fans to be her definitive signature song.
• Song Association: "Greedy" from Dangerous Woman. If you're a fan of Rupauls Drag Race, then you know "Greedy" as the song Valentina didn't know the words to.
• Tough Act to Follow: According to a number of her fans and reviewers, Thank U, Next is this, as it's viewed as one of her best albums in terms of range, lyrical story telling and vocals. Because of this, the album Positions that she released in 2020, about a year after Thank U, Next was received less warmly due to feeling rather monotone in comparison.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Ariana has a lot of young fangirls due to the fact she began as a Nickelodeon child star and she has a "beautiful" look to her. A good number of her singles are rather clean, however not all are. For example, "Dangerous Woman" and "Into You" both have veiled references to sex. Her albums from Dangerous Woman onwards have Parental Advisory warnings, with thank u, next and Positions getting into Cluster F-Bomb territory.

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