September 18, 2025 • 25 mins
There are few artists that truly define ‘pop’ music and popstardom like one Ariana Grande; One of the most streamed artists of all time. She is, after all the first female artist to have no less than 20 songs hit a billion streams a pop.
Needless to say, this streaming success is not the only metric that defines Ariana Grande’s success - she’s sold an estimated 90 million+ records worldwide, and has been celebrated with: 2 Grammy Awards, A Brit Award, 2 Billboard Music Awards 3 American Music Awards, 13 MTV VMAs (including three this year) &7 iHeartRadio Music Awards - although technically one was for her dog Toulouse - but we’ll give it to her.
Obviously - Ari isn’t just a pop star either; her work on the big screen adaptation of the stage musical Wicked solidified her as a true Hollywood powerhouse, and of course - she’s historically no stranger to the Broadway Stage, or the world of Television. So it’s safe to say… she’s kind of a big deal.
With all these hits it was hard to pick just one! But this week we look at one of Ariana Grande's most important songs: One Last Time.
Written by Clayton Taylor for iHeartRadio.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Popular, she knows about popular. I'm Ruby Carr and this
is the story of Ariana Grande's One Last Time.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You know the songs
just making people feel something. It's been a pleasure to
work on this song with
her, but do you know the history to struggle
making any kind of record? I don't always have the
direction or
concept. This is Encore, an in-depth look at the stories
behind the music. Here's Iart Radio's Ruby Carr.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
There are few artists that truly define pop music and
pop stardom like Ariana Grande, one of the most streamed
artists of all time. Like I said, popular. According to Spotify,
Grande was the first female artist ever to receive over
90 billion total streams, and as of this year, the
first female artist to have no less than 20 songs
(00:51):
hit a billion streams each.
Needless to say, this streaming success is not the only
metric that defines Ariana Grande's success. She's sold an estimated
90 million+ records worldwide and has celebrated with two Grammy Awards,
a Brit Award, 2 Billboard Music Awards, 3 American Music Awards,
(01:11):
13 MTV VMAs, including 3 this year, and 7 iHeartRadio
Music Awards, although technically one was for her dog Toulouse,
but we'll give it to her.
Obviously Ari isn't just a pop star either. Her work
on the big screen adaptation of the stage musical Wicked
solidified her as a true Hollywood powerhouse, and of course
(01:33):
she's historically no stranger to the Broadway stage or the
world of television, so it's safe to say she's kind
of a big deal after breaking out in the world
of musical theater in the Broadway.
Production of 13 in 2008 at the age of 15,
Ariana Grande became a teen household name, not as a
Disney kid like many of her contemporaries of the era,
(01:55):
but as a Nickelodeon kid as Cat Valentine on the
hit series Victorious and the incredibly short-lived Victorious meets iCarly
spinoff series Sam and Cat.
To be honest, based on the allegations and accusations of
the production staff involved with those particular shows and the
toll it took on co-star Jeannette McCurdy's career and mental health,
(02:18):
it's of little surprise that Grande distanced herself very quickly
from the TV shows once music opportunities began presenting themselves
to her.
Grande signed to Universal Republic Records in August of 2011
and would release her very first single, the incredibly bubble
gummy pop sounding Put Your Hearts up by the end
(02:38):
of the year. Fun fact about that non-album track, by
the way, if you've never heard it, it's got a
writing credit to For non blonde's Linda Perry, as it's
actually a heavy interpolation of their 1993 hit What's Up, uh,
which is a choice.
Instead of the classic What's Going On refrain, Grande sings,
(02:59):
if we give a little love, maybe we can change
the world. Sing it if you're with me, all you
boys and all you girls over top of possibly the
most 2011 sounding synth lines of all time. Grande would
actually eventually disown her first single Telling Rolling Stone in 2014.
It was geared toward kids and felt so inauthentic and fake.
(03:19):
That was the worst moment of my life. For the video,
they gave me a bad spray tan and put me
in a princess.
Dress and had me frolic around the street. The whole
thing was straight out of hell. I still have nightmares
about it and I made them hide it on my
Vivo page. She would walk the statements back a bit
in 2020, telling Zach saying that she actually didn't hate
(03:40):
the song but was caught in a weird position between
acting on a kid show and trying to be a
recording artists, and that really the song probably just should
have been bestowed upon someone else who was more into
the bubble gum pop sound.
After doing a few more tracks with the cast of Victoria,
Ariana Grande finally released her debut album Yours Truly in
(04:02):
August of 2013, not too long after signing with famed
Uber manager Scooter Braun. Originally conceptualized as music similar to
Put Your Hearts Up, Ari would hold meetings with her
label to let them know this was not the type
of music she was interested in making. I.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Like the 90s R&B throwback stuff you're doing right now.
So is that what the whole album's going to be
when it comes out? No, no, like, like some of
it is like that. There's a good like 4 or
5 songs that are like that, but the rest are,
it sort of throws back to like a doo-wop vibe,
like 60s, 50s, and it's still super soulful in R&B,
but it's just like a weird pop throwback concoction. Like
(04:40):
the whole thing is really just like throwback inspired pop, both.
From the 90s and from like the 50s, 60s.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
She would expand a bit more in an interview with
MTV telling the outlet that she was introducing the real Ariana, saying,
I'm very excited for fans to hear the entire album
because half of it is that throwback 90s R&B feel,
but then the other half is something that is very
unique and very special that I've sort of written and
it feels original and very cool. Growing up, I
(05:07):
Loved listening to like the divas of the nineties. I
love listening to well Destiny's Child was my favorite thing
about my childhood, like my favorite thing, and Brandy and
all of these fabulous women that I love listening to
as a child. I guess I just missed that sort
of real fun R&B feel good music. Fans can get
to know me as Ariana. I'm very excited for that.
(05:27):
It's very personal. It's super personal, and it means a
lot to me.
Side note, this episode is being written just days after
Ari presented Mariah Carey with the MTV VMA Vanguard Award.
The way too cute interaction between the two went a
little bit viral after the fact because of how clear
it was that Grande just revered Mariah. So say what
(05:49):
you want, but our girl is consistent.
Speaking of consistency, Grande called in 90s R&B legend Babyface
to produce that aforementioned first half of the record, including
second single Baby Eye. To keep it contemporary, Grande also
worked closely with up and coming producer Harmony Samuels. Samuels
would produce the other two singles from yours truly lead
(06:12):
off single The Way, featuring the late Mac Miller, and
third single Right There featuring Big Sean.
Incidentally, Ariana Grande would enter romantic relationships with Sean and
Miller in the years that followed.
It's pretty cute actually. Long before Grande was an item
with either rapper, she was dishing to much how she
first met Big Sean and why she chose to kiss
(06:35):
Mac Miller in the way.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Um, it's really random. Uh, I met him at an
event and I like loved him. Like I thought he
was the coolest and we took a picture and that
was great.
And then at the next event I saw him at,
he was like, Hey, why didn't you hit me back?
I was like, What do you mean? He was like,
on Twitter, I DM'd you jousting again in the hallway, uh,
who's winning? No, um, and he was like, uh, yeah,
I DM'd you, and I was like, oh my God,
(06:58):
that's crazy. And so then we just exchanged numbers and
uh we've hung out a couple times and he's really
nice and we've been trying to find a song to
make into a duet for a really long time. We
just couldn't find the right vibe.
But now it's finally right. I think right there is
like the perfect match for the two of us. So
what about Mac Miller? I mean, all these guys reaching
out to you because they hear your voice. Obviously everyone's
attracted to your voice, which is great because it's the
talent about you, you know what I mean? It's not
(07:19):
really anything else at this point. So are they reaching
out to you and saying let's do music? Well, Mack
reached out about a year ago on Twitter again and
he was like, Hey, Larry Lovestein wants to do a
duet with you, and I was like, OK, cool. And
so he, we exchanged numbers and
And one night he was like, Hey, come over, let's
make Christmas music, and I was like, OK. And then
(07:41):
we made a Christmas song and from then on it
was just like he's become one of my best friends.
Like I love him. He's amazing and um we just
hang out and make music all the time. So why
Christmas music because he tweeted today that you're gonna put
out more stuff before the end of the year with him.
Christmas songs, yeah, well we, it was Christmas time at
the time. Well, no, it was a little before Christmas
at that time, so we wanted to make something and
we did a cover of Baby It's Cold Outside and um.
(08:04):
Yeah, uh, and that was it. I don't know, but
we whenever we hang out we make really weird like
experimental cool music that probably will never play on the radio,
but it's really cool and fun. Was there any apprehension
about kissing him in the music video? I mean, it's
a hot video, but at the same time it gets
people talking. It was it like a no, it's fun.
I mean it gets people to come watch the video
(08:25):
and you know, we, uh, it was, it was just
this song is so fun and flirty and romantic. It
was just fun, you know. I didn't want to just
be like.
A girl in a dress bouncing around in balloons the
whole time, like,
you know, next level.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
The record was positively reviewed by most outlets thanks to
Grande's incredible 4 octave vocal range. Honestly, if I could
sing like her, I would never stop singing and her
commitment to her sound and commitment to artistic integrity. The
New York Times' John Karamanica summed it up when he
compared Ariana and her debut to other mainstream pop institutions, writing, Ariana.
(09:00):
Grande has become the first identifiable post Glee idol pop star.
Idol and Glee have been responsible for an intense surge
of interest in music on television, but they haven't left
much of a mark on the shape of pop. That's
because both shows are about emulating, not innovating. Grande uses
them as a foundation and innovates atop them. She uses
(09:20):
the Glee idol template as a jumping off point to
make modern pop R&B with a sturdy vintage backbone.
Ms. Grande is almost there. She has a lit voice
and is capable of real power, though she doles it
out carefully like that other child TV star turned pop
comer Miley Cyrus. Ms Grande is 20, but her slide
into maturity isn't moving at Miss Cyrus's warp speed. Miss
(09:43):
Grande's version of adulthood is about expertise, not transgression. I mean,
I don't know why you had to compare the two,
but I guess it's because they always do anyway.
After wowing crowds on the 2013 MTV VMA's pre-show, yes,
you heard that right, pre-show. Yours truly would debut at
number one on the Billboard 200, and she'd become the
(10:05):
first female debut since Kesha's Animal in 2010 to do so.
Something else that was hilariously noted at the time was
how well she did in digital sales. Of the 138001st
week sales, 108,000 of them were digital downloads.
Don't get me wrong, we were well past the point
of no return for CD sales, being the undisputed king
(10:27):
in the music industry, but I do get a little
kick out of the record industry being counters, like sitting
around a boardroom going, This Grade girl is quite hip
with the kids. It seems as if many of them
are purchasing her music from the internet.
Still nowhere near a mega mega star lead single The
Way did crack the top 10 of the Billboard Hot
(10:48):
100 as radio, but all of that was about to
change very soon.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I
met Rihanna, which was the oh your photo. I died.
I literally died. My mom literally was pushing me up
to her like, Ariana, go, go, go, go, go, because
I love her so much, and, and I was like,
she's like, Excuse me, Rihanna, my daughter just and she
turned around and she was like, I love you and
I was like.
Everyone knows who you are. That's not true. I'm not
(11:13):
ready for things like that. Brihanna was so sweet to
me and so complimentary and so nice, and she was
just really like the kindest, most down to earth, sweetest
thing I love her. It's funny because you just went,
we saw you go through a meet and greet, and
those are the girls, they're all crying and bawling on
the way out because they just met you and in
fact you feel the same way when you meet, you know,
all these other people. Well yeah, especially Rihanna. I love
her so much, but
(11:34):
yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Ari would take a brief pit stop from contemporary pop music.
To release the Christmas Kisses EP, which mostly consisted of
cover songs, but would later become somewhat infamous for the
Japanese deluxe version of the CD which included the track
Santa Tell Me. An alternate version of the song contains
some pretty not safe for work lyrics for a Christmas song. Um,
(11:57):
our sister podcast Behind the Christmas hits actually did a
great recap on the song a couple years back, so
I'll link it in the description of this episode so
that you can check it out.
With Christmas out of the way, Ariana Grande would release
her sophomore album My Everything in August of 2014, which
sources are telling me was 11 years ago. Sorry, uh,
(12:19):
just had a bit of an existential crisis there. I'm fine.
It's fine. Everything's fine. That was 11 years ago, sure,
it's fine. This time around Ariana was firing on all
cylinders working with a who's.
Who of collaborators, writers and producers, including the likes of
Max Martin, Benny Blanco, Ryan Tedder, Shellback, Zed, and notably
Savon Kotecha, who you may recall was responsible for One
(12:42):
Direction's breakthrough hit What Makes You Beautiful. Kottecha was the
co-writer on every single one of My Everything singles, including
Lead off Bangger Problem featuring.
Iggy Azalea, EDM Supercut Break Free featuring Zed, Girl Gang
Anthem Bang Bang, featuring Nicki Minaj and Jessie J, which
also appeared on Jessie J's album Sweet Talker. The way
(13:06):
ahead of its time Love Me Harder, featuring up and
comer The Weekend, and of course, the subject of this episode,
I mean, technically, there's a lot on this episode, but
one last time.
You won't be surprised to hear that of course all
these singles are comfortably in the aforementioned Billion Dream Club
and also help the record go 4 times platinum in
(13:26):
the states and 5 times platinum here in Canada. The
1st 4 singles would all chart in the top 10
of the Billboard Hot 100, achieving multi-platinum status. Technically Bang
Bang went diamond, which is even better than multi-platinum.
It was the album's 5th and final single one last
time though that we're zooming in on because of all
(13:47):
the songs released in the My Everything era, it was
the only one released 4 times.
Yes, originally released just in time for Valentine's Day on
February 10, 2015. 1 Last Time does not feature writing
from Grande herself, written by Kotecha, his constant collaborators Rami
Yaco and Carl Faulk. The team also collaborated with superstar
(14:10):
DJ David Guetta and his production protege Giorgio Tufort. Goetta
was actually hoping to put it on one of his
albums but didn't feel like it felt cohesive to the.
Sound he was looking for one last time is unique
in the sense that it kind of sort of sounds
like a regretful love loss ballad and certainly could be
lyrically read as one with Grande's vocal range on full
(14:34):
display from low and sultry to high and airy as
she belts out lines like, and I know she gives
you everything but boy I couldn't give it to you
and I know that you got everything and I got
nothing here without you.
But the song's pulsing up tempo EDM beat and surging
synth line allow it to shine as just as much
(14:54):
of a club banger as anything else at the time.
I mean, but better. Reviewed incredibly positively by most outlets,
Nick Levine of Time Out summed it up nicely by
describing the hit as serving club pop with a side
of melancholy. Couldn't have put it better myself.
And you can't say it wasn't ubiquitous. The song was
actually re-released two more times in 2015 alone. It was
(15:19):
re-released just six days later in Belgium, Switzerland and France
as a duet with French singer Kenji Jarac, who claims
it was essentially corporate synergy that got him the duet
feature and was released again in Italy by Italian rapper Fettes.
You can hear the Kenji duet pretty easily these days
on all major streaming platforms, but the Fetta's version is
(15:40):
a bit harder to find.
The song and its video, I must note, were not
without their own controversies. First, the ambitious futuristic, post-apocalyptic music
video directed by Max Landis that stars Ariana and her
victorious co-star Matt Bennett faced plagiarism accusations by Australian band
(16:01):
Safia for copying the video for their song You Are
the One.
In their accusation, they noted the single tracking shot used
in the video as well as the beginning and ending
of the video being creatively similar. Landis would acknowledge the
similarities between his video and you are the ones, but
would deny that he stole anything from Safia, noting works
(16:23):
by other music video directors released previously to both of
theirs that had just as many similarities. For what it's worth,
I watched both videos and like, sure, it's got a.
Person running out of a car after a citywide catastrophe.
It ends with a bleak lover's embrace, but I'm not
entirely sure one last time could be definitively seen as
(16:43):
plagiarizing the clip. Like watch for yourself. Let me know
what you think, um, because let's be honest, there is
such a thing as parallel thinking.
Next, in August 2016, Alex Greggs filed a lawsuit against Grande,
her co-writers at Universal Music Group, and Republic Records for
copyright infringement of the song Takes All Night by Sky Stevens,
(17:04):
a song which he wrote.
Similarities could certainly be found if you were really looking
for them, but the case was dismissed in 2018. In
its initial release, one last time was technically the least
successful of My Everything's five singles, only 5 times platinum
here in Canada, for example, although that's a judgment made
(17:24):
on an incredibly high bar. In fact, back in 2015,
as the song was gaining popularity.
The industry pro section of Billboard magazine marveled at Grande's
ability to keep collecting hits. Writer Gary Trust compared Grande's
remarkable radio run to the likes of Katy Perry's five-time
single run on Teenage Dream, ending with of course the
(17:47):
whimsical last Friday night, and Michael Jackson's single number 5
Dirty Diana from 1987's Bat.
Of course for the song's final re-release, if you're listening
to this episode and are up on your Ariana Grande
history or your history in general, you know where we
so unfortunately have to go next, and that's 2017. OK,
(18:08):
so just a quick content warning here since it's so
crucial to the story of this song and the song's
impact on society, if you happen to be unfamiliar with
the story of the Manchester Arena bombing, it is some
pretty horrific and tragic stuff.
I'm gonna play you a quick summary of the details
of the attack by ABC News before we also hear
(18:29):
from Ariana herself in their world exclusive on her memories
of that night. The initial clip is about 35 seconds long.
It's not graphic, but if you'd rather skip it, you
can do that now.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
It was 10:30 p.m. on May 22nd. Ariana Grande had
just finished her sold out concert for 20,000 at Manchester Arena.
When an explosion rocked the stadium inside the crowd, many
young children and teenagers with their parents racing for the exits.
Outside mayhem. Police later confirming a suicide bomber had killed
(19:05):
22 and injured hundreds.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yes, 22 people were killed that night with over 1000
more injured, the deadliest act of terrorism in over a
decade in the UK, as she explained to Michael Strahan
at first she wasn't sure if she'd ever perform again,
Speaker 2 (19:22):
and I was like I can't.
I was like I'm not putting those costumes on again.
I can't sing those songs again like I was like
I can't. I was like I love y'all. I can't
do it. I was like there's no way. And then
um I was trying to go to sleep that night
and it didn't feel right. It didn't feel like the
right decision. I think you should set a better example
and kind of like celebrate their lives, you know what
I mean, and try to like not let hate or like.
(19:45):
Violence or any kind of darkness of that magnitude when
in the scenario.
Returning less than 2 weeks later for the One Love
Manchester concert, Grande and a host of stars took the
stage in front of more than 50,000 joyous fans.
(20:10):
I think a mixture of just like the love from
my fans and like seeing people be there for one
another and help each other heal and therapy and time
um everything uh.
You know, you you find the light eventually and it's still,
you know, a work in progress but I think the
(20:30):
sense of community that I saw in response to what
happened was the best example of
humanity.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Stunningly, only two weeks later, with the help of Simon Moran,
Melvin Ben, and Ari's manager Scooter Braun, the group organized
the massive one Love Manchester benefit concert at the Old
Trafford Cricket Ground on June 4th, 2017.
With a run time of about 3 hours and 20
minutes and 55,000 plus in attendance, guests performing on the
(21:00):
stage that night included Robbie Williams, Pharrell, Miley Cyrus, Niall Horn,
Black Eyed Peas, aptly performing Where Is the Love with
Ariana Grande, Mac Miller, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Coldplay, Liam
Gallagher of Manchester's own Oasis, and of course.
Ariana Grande essentially punctuating the entire concert with her own
(21:21):
impressive catalog of hits. She had just released the iconic
Dangerous Woman after all. While she finished with an incredibly
emotional rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, it was one
last time performed just before that with every single artist
featured that night in choir that just really stole the show.
(21:42):
Suddenly those lyrics of one last time, I need to
be the one who takes you home, had this all
new incredibly poignant meaning to them as the global audience
watched and listened. Sorry, it just makes me tear up
talking about it right now too.
OK, of the event, Francis Wilkinson in Bloomberg.com wrote Grande
(22:03):
offered a face that was brave and kind in the
wake of terror while accomplishing several useful goals, raising money
for victims, bolstering courage, and making the attacks look both
puny and pointless. Whatever the terrorists had hoped to produce
in Manchester, it certainly wasn't this party.
But as Scooter Braun so rightly put it in an
(22:24):
interview with Billboard, the city of Manchester was the real hero.
Here he is giving a little more background on the
effects of the attack on some of the families, Ariana
and himself with NPR. I remember.
We met with the families 2 days before we did
the show, uh, privately and at first she was crying
(22:44):
it was very difficult and about the 6th family came in.
Um,
I haven't talked about this in a while.
was a father my age.
Um, and he'd lost his, his kid.
And uh and his wife.
And he had 2 more children.
And um
(23:07):
I
Seeing him, I was being strong for Ariana, but when
I saw a father.
My age.
In that position
I broke down, lost it, had to leave the room.
Um,
And she became my support system.
The benefit concert itself raised in excess of 17 million
(23:28):
pounds and immediately following the concert, Grande also re-released one
last time with all proceeds also being donated to the cause.
Arienators everywhere, but especially in England, took the cause seriously.
The song quickly went to number 2 in the UK,
going platinum within a week and now sits at about
quadruple platinum in the UK alone, mostly off the back
(23:52):
of the 2017 re-release.
In the years that followed, Ariana Grande would play one
last time on tour a handful of times, less and
less with each passing year due to the trauma that
still existed for her and would essentially retire the song
after playing an acoustic version at Manchester Pride. It's crazy
to think that in the seven years that followed, 2019's
(24:13):
Sweetener tour was at the time of recording her last
official tour.
Which means partially thanks to the pandemic we actually don't
know if she'll ever take the song out of retirement again,
but I guess we'll see because literally as this episode
is being finished, Grande has added 9 additional dates to
her first tour in seven years, the Eternal Sunshine Tour,
(24:35):
including a third stop in Montreal on July 31, 2026,
her only Canadian stops at the time of recording.
What's almost for certain is that Ari will be playing
plenty of hits off of the albums that followed my everything,
including any of her 9 number one singles that all
occurred after the release of One Last Time. What are
(24:56):
those hits, you ask? Well, you'll just have to keep
listening to Encore, the stories behind the songs you love,
wherever you get your podcasts, uh, in case we do
a future episode on one of them.
But in the meantime I'm politely asking one last time,
does anyone have a spare ticket to Montreal? I'm Ruby Carr.
Thanks for listening to Encore. This was a tough one,
(25:17):
but a true testament to the power of music and togetherness.
New episodes of Encore every Thursday. Encore is an iHeart
Radio Canada podcast. Download the free iHeart Radio app and subscribe.
Thank you, thank you so much for coming.
Popular, she knows about popular. I'm Ruby Carr and this
is the story of Ariana Grande's One Last Time.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You know the songs
just making people feel something. It's been a pleasure to
work on this song with
her, but do you know the history to struggle
making any kind of record? I don't always have the
direction or
concept. This is Encore, an in-depth look at the stories
behind the music. Here's Iart Radio's Ruby Carr.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
There are few artists that truly define pop music and
pop stardom like Ariana Grande, one of the most streamed
artists of all time. Like I said, popular. According to Spotify,
Grande was the first female artist ever to receive over
90 billion total streams, and as of this year, the
first female artist to have no less than 20 songs
(00:51):
hit a billion streams each.
Needless to say, this streaming success is not the only
metric that defines Ariana Grande's success. She's sold an estimated
90 million+ records worldwide and has celebrated with two Grammy Awards,
a Brit Award, 2 Billboard Music Awards, 3 American Music Awards,
(01:11):
13 MTV VMAs, including 3 this year, and 7 iHeartRadio
Music Awards, although technically one was for her dog Toulouse,
but we'll give it to her.
Obviously Ari isn't just a pop star either. Her work
on the big screen adaptation of the stage musical Wicked
solidified her as a true Hollywood powerhouse, and of course
(01:33):
she's historically no stranger to the Broadway stage or the
world of television, so it's safe to say she's kind
of a big deal after breaking out in the world
of musical theater in the Broadway.
Production of 13 in 2008 at the age of 15,
Ariana Grande became a teen household name, not as a
Disney kid like many of her contemporaries of the era,
(01:55):
but as a Nickelodeon kid as Cat Valentine on the
hit series Victorious and the incredibly short-lived Victorious meets iCarly
spinoff series Sam and Cat.
To be honest, based on the allegations and accusations of
the production staff involved with those particular shows and the
toll it took on co-star Jeannette McCurdy's career and mental health,
(02:18):
it's of little surprise that Grande distanced herself very quickly
from the TV shows once music opportunities began presenting themselves
to her.
Grande signed to Universal Republic Records in August of 2011
and would release her very first single, the incredibly bubble
gummy pop sounding Put Your Hearts up by the end
(02:38):
of the year. Fun fact about that non-album track, by
the way, if you've never heard it, it's got a
writing credit to For non blonde's Linda Perry, as it's
actually a heavy interpolation of their 1993 hit What's Up, uh,
which is a choice.
Instead of the classic What's Going On refrain, Grande sings,
(02:59):
if we give a little love, maybe we can change
the world. Sing it if you're with me, all you
boys and all you girls over top of possibly the
most 2011 sounding synth lines of all time. Grande would
actually eventually disown her first single Telling Rolling Stone in 2014.
It was geared toward kids and felt so inauthentic and fake.
(03:19):
That was the worst moment of my life. For the video,
they gave me a bad spray tan and put me
in a princess.
Dress and had me frolic around the street. The whole
thing was straight out of hell. I still have nightmares
about it and I made them hide it on my
Vivo page. She would walk the statements back a bit
in 2020, telling Zach saying that she actually didn't hate
(03:40):
the song but was caught in a weird position between
acting on a kid show and trying to be a
recording artists, and that really the song probably just should
have been bestowed upon someone else who was more into
the bubble gum pop sound.
After doing a few more tracks with the cast of Victoria,
Ariana Grande finally released her debut album Yours Truly in
(04:02):
August of 2013, not too long after signing with famed
Uber manager Scooter Braun. Originally conceptualized as music similar to
Put Your Hearts Up, Ari would hold meetings with her
label to let them know this was not the type
of music she was interested in making. I.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Like the 90s R&B throwback stuff you're doing right now.
So is that what the whole album's going to be
when it comes out? No, no, like, like some of
it is like that. There's a good like 4 or
5 songs that are like that, but the rest are,
it sort of throws back to like a doo-wop vibe,
like 60s, 50s, and it's still super soulful in R&B,
but it's just like a weird pop throwback concoction. Like
(04:40):
the whole thing is really just like throwback inspired pop, both.
From the 90s and from like the 50s, 60s.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
She would expand a bit more in an interview with
MTV telling the outlet that she was introducing the real Ariana, saying,
I'm very excited for fans to hear the entire album
because half of it is that throwback 90s R&B feel,
but then the other half is something that is very
unique and very special that I've sort of written and
it feels original and very cool. Growing up, I
(05:07):
Loved listening to like the divas of the nineties. I
love listening to well Destiny's Child was my favorite thing
about my childhood, like my favorite thing, and Brandy and
all of these fabulous women that I love listening to
as a child. I guess I just missed that sort
of real fun R&B feel good music. Fans can get
to know me as Ariana. I'm very excited for that.
(05:27):
It's very personal. It's super personal, and it means a
lot to me.
Side note, this episode is being written just days after
Ari presented Mariah Carey with the MTV VMA Vanguard Award.
The way too cute interaction between the two went a
little bit viral after the fact because of how clear
it was that Grande just revered Mariah. So say what
(05:49):
you want, but our girl is consistent.
Speaking of consistency, Grande called in 90s R&B legend Babyface
to produce that aforementioned first half of the record, including
second single Baby Eye. To keep it contemporary, Grande also
worked closely with up and coming producer Harmony Samuels. Samuels
would produce the other two singles from yours truly lead
(06:12):
off single The Way, featuring the late Mac Miller, and
third single Right There featuring Big Sean.
Incidentally, Ariana Grande would enter romantic relationships with Sean and
Miller in the years that followed.
It's pretty cute actually. Long before Grande was an item
with either rapper, she was dishing to much how she
first met Big Sean and why she chose to kiss
(06:35):
Mac Miller in the way.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Um, it's really random. Uh, I met him at an
event and I like loved him. Like I thought he
was the coolest and we took a picture and that
was great.
And then at the next event I saw him at,
he was like, Hey, why didn't you hit me back?
I was like, What do you mean? He was like,
on Twitter, I DM'd you jousting again in the hallway, uh,
who's winning? No, um, and he was like, uh, yeah,
I DM'd you, and I was like, oh my God,
(06:58):
that's crazy. And so then we just exchanged numbers and
uh we've hung out a couple times and he's really
nice and we've been trying to find a song to
make into a duet for a really long time. We
just couldn't find the right vibe.
But now it's finally right. I think right there is
like the perfect match for the two of us. So
what about Mac Miller? I mean, all these guys reaching
out to you because they hear your voice. Obviously everyone's
attracted to your voice, which is great because it's the
talent about you, you know what I mean? It's not
(07:19):
really anything else at this point. So are they reaching
out to you and saying let's do music? Well, Mack
reached out about a year ago on Twitter again and
he was like, Hey, Larry Lovestein wants to do a
duet with you, and I was like, OK, cool. And
so he, we exchanged numbers and
And one night he was like, Hey, come over, let's
make Christmas music, and I was like, OK. And then
(07:41):
we made a Christmas song and from then on it
was just like he's become one of my best friends.
Like I love him. He's amazing and um we just
hang out and make music all the time. So why
Christmas music because he tweeted today that you're gonna put
out more stuff before the end of the year with him.
Christmas songs, yeah, well we, it was Christmas time at
the time. Well, no, it was a little before Christmas
at that time, so we wanted to make something and
we did a cover of Baby It's Cold Outside and um.
(08:04):
Yeah, uh, and that was it. I don't know, but
we whenever we hang out we make really weird like
experimental cool music that probably will never play on the radio,
but it's really cool and fun. Was there any apprehension
about kissing him in the music video? I mean, it's
a hot video, but at the same time it gets
people talking. It was it like a no, it's fun.
I mean it gets people to come watch the video
(08:25):
and you know, we, uh, it was, it was just
this song is so fun and flirty and romantic. It
was just fun, you know. I didn't want to just
be like.
A girl in a dress bouncing around in balloons the
whole time, like,
you know, next level.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
The record was positively reviewed by most outlets thanks to
Grande's incredible 4 octave vocal range. Honestly, if I could
sing like her, I would never stop singing and her
commitment to her sound and commitment to artistic integrity. The
New York Times' John Karamanica summed it up when he
compared Ariana and her debut to other mainstream pop institutions, writing, Ariana.
(09:00):
Grande has become the first identifiable post Glee idol pop star.
Idol and Glee have been responsible for an intense surge
of interest in music on television, but they haven't left
much of a mark on the shape of pop. That's
because both shows are about emulating, not innovating. Grande uses
them as a foundation and innovates atop them. She uses
(09:20):
the Glee idol template as a jumping off point to
make modern pop R&B with a sturdy vintage backbone.
Ms. Grande is almost there. She has a lit voice
and is capable of real power, though she doles it
out carefully like that other child TV star turned pop
comer Miley Cyrus. Ms Grande is 20, but her slide
into maturity isn't moving at Miss Cyrus's warp speed. Miss
(09:43):
Grande's version of adulthood is about expertise, not transgression. I mean,
I don't know why you had to compare the two,
but I guess it's because they always do anyway.
After wowing crowds on the 2013 MTV VMA's pre-show, yes,
you heard that right, pre-show. Yours truly would debut at
number one on the Billboard 200, and she'd become the
(10:05):
first female debut since Kesha's Animal in 2010 to do so.
Something else that was hilariously noted at the time was
how well she did in digital sales. Of the 138001st
week sales, 108,000 of them were digital downloads.
Don't get me wrong, we were well past the point
of no return for CD sales, being the undisputed king
(10:27):
in the music industry, but I do get a little
kick out of the record industry being counters, like sitting
around a boardroom going, This Grade girl is quite hip
with the kids. It seems as if many of them
are purchasing her music from the internet.
Still nowhere near a mega mega star lead single The
Way did crack the top 10 of the Billboard Hot
(10:48):
100 as radio, but all of that was about to
change very soon.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I
met Rihanna, which was the oh your photo. I died.
I literally died. My mom literally was pushing me up
to her like, Ariana, go, go, go, go, go, because
I love her so much, and, and I was like,
she's like, Excuse me, Rihanna, my daughter just and she
turned around and she was like, I love you and
I was like.
Everyone knows who you are. That's not true. I'm not
(11:13):
ready for things like that. Brihanna was so sweet to
me and so complimentary and so nice, and she was
just really like the kindest, most down to earth, sweetest
thing I love her. It's funny because you just went,
we saw you go through a meet and greet, and
those are the girls, they're all crying and bawling on
the way out because they just met you and in
fact you feel the same way when you meet, you know,
all these other people. Well yeah, especially Rihanna. I love
her so much, but
(11:34):
yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Ari would take a brief pit stop from contemporary pop music.
To release the Christmas Kisses EP, which mostly consisted of
cover songs, but would later become somewhat infamous for the
Japanese deluxe version of the CD which included the track
Santa Tell Me. An alternate version of the song contains
some pretty not safe for work lyrics for a Christmas song. Um,
(11:57):
our sister podcast Behind the Christmas hits actually did a
great recap on the song a couple years back, so
I'll link it in the description of this episode so
that you can check it out.
With Christmas out of the way, Ariana Grande would release
her sophomore album My Everything in August of 2014, which
sources are telling me was 11 years ago. Sorry, uh,
(12:19):
just had a bit of an existential crisis there. I'm fine.
It's fine. Everything's fine. That was 11 years ago, sure,
it's fine. This time around Ariana was firing on all
cylinders working with a who's.
Who of collaborators, writers and producers, including the likes of
Max Martin, Benny Blanco, Ryan Tedder, Shellback, Zed, and notably
Savon Kotecha, who you may recall was responsible for One
(12:42):
Direction's breakthrough hit What Makes You Beautiful. Kottecha was the
co-writer on every single one of My Everything singles, including
Lead off Bangger Problem featuring.
Iggy Azalea, EDM Supercut Break Free featuring Zed, Girl Gang
Anthem Bang Bang, featuring Nicki Minaj and Jessie J, which
also appeared on Jessie J's album Sweet Talker. The way
(13:06):
ahead of its time Love Me Harder, featuring up and
comer The Weekend, and of course, the subject of this episode,
I mean, technically, there's a lot on this episode, but
one last time.
You won't be surprised to hear that of course all
these singles are comfortably in the aforementioned Billion Dream Club
and also help the record go 4 times platinum in
(13:26):
the states and 5 times platinum here in Canada. The
1st 4 singles would all chart in the top 10
of the Billboard Hot 100, achieving multi-platinum status. Technically Bang
Bang went diamond, which is even better than multi-platinum.
It was the album's 5th and final single one last
time though that we're zooming in on because of all
(13:47):
the songs released in the My Everything era, it was
the only one released 4 times.
Yes, originally released just in time for Valentine's Day on
February 10, 2015. 1 Last Time does not feature writing
from Grande herself, written by Kotecha, his constant collaborators Rami
Yaco and Carl Faulk. The team also collaborated with superstar
(14:10):
DJ David Guetta and his production protege Giorgio Tufort. Goetta
was actually hoping to put it on one of his
albums but didn't feel like it felt cohesive to the.
Sound he was looking for one last time is unique
in the sense that it kind of sort of sounds
like a regretful love loss ballad and certainly could be
lyrically read as one with Grande's vocal range on full
(14:34):
display from low and sultry to high and airy as
she belts out lines like, and I know she gives
you everything but boy I couldn't give it to you
and I know that you got everything and I got
nothing here without you.
But the song's pulsing up tempo EDM beat and surging
synth line allow it to shine as just as much
(14:54):
of a club banger as anything else at the time.
I mean, but better. Reviewed incredibly positively by most outlets,
Nick Levine of Time Out summed it up nicely by
describing the hit as serving club pop with a side
of melancholy. Couldn't have put it better myself.
And you can't say it wasn't ubiquitous. The song was
actually re-released two more times in 2015 alone. It was
(15:19):
re-released just six days later in Belgium, Switzerland and France
as a duet with French singer Kenji Jarac, who claims
it was essentially corporate synergy that got him the duet
feature and was released again in Italy by Italian rapper Fettes.
You can hear the Kenji duet pretty easily these days
on all major streaming platforms, but the Fetta's version is
(15:40):
a bit harder to find.
The song and its video, I must note, were not
without their own controversies. First, the ambitious futuristic, post-apocalyptic music
video directed by Max Landis that stars Ariana and her
victorious co-star Matt Bennett faced plagiarism accusations by Australian band
(16:01):
Safia for copying the video for their song You Are
the One.
In their accusation, they noted the single tracking shot used
in the video as well as the beginning and ending
of the video being creatively similar. Landis would acknowledge the
similarities between his video and you are the ones, but
would deny that he stole anything from Safia, noting works
(16:23):
by other music video directors released previously to both of
theirs that had just as many similarities. For what it's worth,
I watched both videos and like, sure, it's got a.
Person running out of a car after a citywide catastrophe.
It ends with a bleak lover's embrace, but I'm not
entirely sure one last time could be definitively seen as
(16:43):
plagiarizing the clip. Like watch for yourself. Let me know
what you think, um, because let's be honest, there is
such a thing as parallel thinking.
Next, in August 2016, Alex Greggs filed a lawsuit against Grande,
her co-writers at Universal Music Group, and Republic Records for
copyright infringement of the song Takes All Night by Sky Stevens,
(17:04):
a song which he wrote.
Similarities could certainly be found if you were really looking
for them, but the case was dismissed in 2018. In
its initial release, one last time was technically the least
successful of My Everything's five singles, only 5 times platinum
here in Canada, for example, although that's a judgment made
(17:24):
on an incredibly high bar. In fact, back in 2015,
as the song was gaining popularity.
The industry pro section of Billboard magazine marveled at Grande's
ability to keep collecting hits. Writer Gary Trust compared Grande's
remarkable radio run to the likes of Katy Perry's five-time
single run on Teenage Dream, ending with of course the
(17:47):
whimsical last Friday night, and Michael Jackson's single number 5
Dirty Diana from 1987's Bat.
Of course for the song's final re-release, if you're listening
to this episode and are up on your Ariana Grande
history or your history in general, you know where we
so unfortunately have to go next, and that's 2017. OK,
(18:08):
so just a quick content warning here since it's so
crucial to the story of this song and the song's
impact on society, if you happen to be unfamiliar with
the story of the Manchester Arena bombing, it is some
pretty horrific and tragic stuff.
I'm gonna play you a quick summary of the details
of the attack by ABC News before we also hear
(18:29):
from Ariana herself in their world exclusive on her memories
of that night. The initial clip is about 35 seconds long.
It's not graphic, but if you'd rather skip it, you
can do that now.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
It was 10:30 p.m. on May 22nd. Ariana Grande had
just finished her sold out concert for 20,000 at Manchester Arena.
When an explosion rocked the stadium inside the crowd, many
young children and teenagers with their parents racing for the exits.
Outside mayhem. Police later confirming a suicide bomber had killed
(19:05):
22 and injured hundreds.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yes, 22 people were killed that night with over 1000
more injured, the deadliest act of terrorism in over a
decade in the UK, as she explained to Michael Strahan
at first she wasn't sure if she'd ever perform again,
Speaker 2 (19:22):
and I was like I can't.
I was like I'm not putting those costumes on again.
I can't sing those songs again like I was like
I can't. I was like I love y'all. I can't
do it. I was like there's no way. And then
um I was trying to go to sleep that night
and it didn't feel right. It didn't feel like the
right decision. I think you should set a better example
and kind of like celebrate their lives, you know what
I mean, and try to like not let hate or like.
(19:45):
Violence or any kind of darkness of that magnitude when
in the scenario.
Returning less than 2 weeks later for the One Love
Manchester concert, Grande and a host of stars took the
stage in front of more than 50,000 joyous fans.
(20:10):
I think a mixture of just like the love from
my fans and like seeing people be there for one
another and help each other heal and therapy and time
um everything uh.
You know, you you find the light eventually and it's still,
you know, a work in progress but I think the
(20:30):
sense of community that I saw in response to what
happened was the best example of
humanity.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Stunningly, only two weeks later, with the help of Simon Moran,
Melvin Ben, and Ari's manager Scooter Braun, the group organized
the massive one Love Manchester benefit concert at the Old
Trafford Cricket Ground on June 4th, 2017.
With a run time of about 3 hours and 20
minutes and 55,000 plus in attendance, guests performing on the
(21:00):
stage that night included Robbie Williams, Pharrell, Miley Cyrus, Niall Horn,
Black Eyed Peas, aptly performing Where Is the Love with
Ariana Grande, Mac Miller, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Coldplay, Liam
Gallagher of Manchester's own Oasis, and of course.
Ariana Grande essentially punctuating the entire concert with her own
(21:21):
impressive catalog of hits. She had just released the iconic
Dangerous Woman after all. While she finished with an incredibly
emotional rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, it was one
last time performed just before that with every single artist
featured that night in choir that just really stole the show.
(21:42):
Suddenly those lyrics of one last time, I need to
be the one who takes you home, had this all
new incredibly poignant meaning to them as the global audience
watched and listened. Sorry, it just makes me tear up
talking about it right now too.
OK, of the event, Francis Wilkinson in Bloomberg.com wrote Grande
(22:03):
offered a face that was brave and kind in the
wake of terror while accomplishing several useful goals, raising money
for victims, bolstering courage, and making the attacks look both
puny and pointless. Whatever the terrorists had hoped to produce
in Manchester, it certainly wasn't this party.
But as Scooter Braun so rightly put it in an
(22:24):
interview with Billboard, the city of Manchester was the real hero.
Here he is giving a little more background on the
effects of the attack on some of the families, Ariana
and himself with NPR. I remember.
We met with the families 2 days before we did
the show, uh, privately and at first she was crying
(22:44):
it was very difficult and about the 6th family came in.
Um,
I haven't talked about this in a while.
was a father my age.
Um, and he'd lost his, his kid.
And uh and his wife.
And he had 2 more children.
And um
(23:07):
I
Seeing him, I was being strong for Ariana, but when
I saw a father.
My age.
In that position
I broke down, lost it, had to leave the room.
Um,
And she became my support system.
The benefit concert itself raised in excess of 17 million
(23:28):
pounds and immediately following the concert, Grande also re-released one
last time with all proceeds also being donated to the cause.
Arienators everywhere, but especially in England, took the cause seriously.
The song quickly went to number 2 in the UK,
going platinum within a week and now sits at about
quadruple platinum in the UK alone, mostly off the back
(23:52):
of the 2017 re-release.
In the years that followed, Ariana Grande would play one
last time on tour a handful of times, less and
less with each passing year due to the trauma that
still existed for her and would essentially retire the song
after playing an acoustic version at Manchester Pride. It's crazy
to think that in the seven years that followed, 2019's
(24:13):
Sweetener tour was at the time of recording her last
official tour.
Which means partially thanks to the pandemic we actually don't
know if she'll ever take the song out of retirement again,
but I guess we'll see because literally as this episode
is being finished, Grande has added 9 additional dates to
her first tour in seven years, the Eternal Sunshine Tour,
(24:35):
including a third stop in Montreal on July 31, 2026,
her only Canadian stops at the time of recording.
What's almost for certain is that Ari will be playing
plenty of hits off of the albums that followed my everything,
including any of her 9 number one singles that all
occurred after the release of One Last Time. What are
(24:56):
those hits, you ask? Well, you'll just have to keep
listening to Encore, the stories behind the songs you love,
wherever you get your podcasts, uh, in case we do
a future episode on one of them.
But in the meantime I'm politely asking one last time,
does anyone have a spare ticket to Montreal? I'm Ruby Carr.
Thanks for listening to Encore. This was a tough one,
(25:17):
but a true testament to the power of music and togetherness.
New episodes of Encore every Thursday. Encore is an iHeart
Radio Canada podcast. Download the free iHeart Radio app and subscribe.
Thank you, thank you so much for coming.
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