Thank U, Next
Thank U, Next is the fifth studio album by American singer Ariana Grande, released on February 8, 2019, by Republic Records. It was released six months after her fourth studio album Sweetener, created in the midst of Grande's personal struggles, including the death of ex-boyfriend Mac Miller and her separation from then-fiancé Pete Davidson. Grande began working on the album in October 2018, enlisting writers and producers such as Tommy Brown, Max Martin, Ilya Salmanzadeh and Andrew "Pop" Wansel. Musically, Thank U, Next is a pop album with trap and R&B elements.
Thank U, Next was preceded by two singles, the title track and "7 Rings", with both debuting atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming Grande's first and second number one singles in the United States, respectively. "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" became the third single on the day of the album release, peaking at number two on the Hot 100. The album peaked at the top spot in many countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US. The album broke multiple streaming records upon release, and was certified double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for earning two million album-equivalent units in the US. On the US Billboard 200 Year-End chart for 2019, Thank U, Next became the second best-performing album in the country. Globally, it was the eighth best-selling album of 2019 and fourth best-selling album by a female artist.
Upon its release, Thank U, Next received universal acclaim from music critics, with many praising the production and its cohesiveness. In support of both Sweetener and Thank U, Next, Grande embarked on the Sweetener World Tour, beginning on March 18, 2019. The concert tour grossed $146.4 million from 97 shows. Thank U, Next was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, while its single "7 Rings" was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the same awards ceremony. The album was ranked in several year-end and decade-end best music lists.
Background and recording
In September 2018, Grande's old friend and ex-boyfriend, rapper Mac Miller, died from a drug overdose. The following month, Grande announced that she would take a break from music. That same month, however, Grande revealed that she had been in the studio working on new music, and she announced the Sweetener World Tour. She stated that the tour would support both her fourth studio album, Sweetener, and her upcoming fifth studio album. Later in October 2018, Grande broke off her engagement with comedian Pete Davidson.in New York City served as the album's main recording location.
Grande started recording the album in October 2018, less than two months after the release of her previous album Sweetener. It was mainly recorded at Jungle City Studios in New York City, with additional recording locations including Right Track Studios in the same city, MXM and Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California, The Record Plant in Hollywood, California, Wolf Cousins Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, and Entirety Studios in London, England.
Grande opted to work with producers and songwriters she was already friends with, stating the decision "kind of saved my life. It was kind of this super challenging chapter that sucked, and then my friends made it amazing and special." Tommy Brown produced the most tracks with five, and collaborated on production with Charles Anderson and Michael Foster of Social House on two of them. Meanwhile, Max Martin and Ilya Salmanzadeh produced four tracks together.
Songwriter Victoria Monét said that Grande and her team worked quickly, writing and recording "nine songs or so" after one week. Unlike her previous albums, most recording sessions were finished after just two weeks. Grande's team always had champagne in the studio, notably Veuve Clicquot, as later referenced in her collaboration with Monét, "Monopoly". Monét co-wrote six of the album's songs, including "Ghostin," which was the first song written for the album and took the longest to write. Grande described it as the hardest song to write for the album and initially requested the song not be included on the final tracklisting.
Music and lyrics
Thank U, Next is a pop, R&B and trap record with many influences of hip hop on its beats and productions. It explores a diversity of other music genres, including dancehall, soul, pop-rap and many urban influences. Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone stated the album "Thank U, Next is just a woman and a mood, taking that mood out for a drive until she pedal-to-the-metals it right off a cliff." In an interview with Zach Sang she said: "We walked to the studio everyday, and just made music and it turned everything around in my life. It sounds very corny but it was like, the most beautiful."Songs
The album begins with the song "Imagine", an R&B ballad with a trap-inspired rhythm. The song features multiple whistle notes, and its lyrics speak about Grande's denial of failed relationships, specifically her relationship with Mac Miller. Mathew Rodriguez from Out mentioned that the song "does the double duty of being both a great song and a great introduction." The next track "Needy" is a mid-tempo minimalistic song with a metronome-like synth in the foreground. Its lyrics are about Grande's insecurities in relationships. "NASA," named after the U.S. space agency of the same name, is a "bouncy-R&B tune." The track features a spoken introduction by Shangela, an American drag queen. She says, "One small step for woman, one giant leap for womankind", a variation on Neil Armstrong's quote, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Carolyn Bernucca of Complex said, "The standout track, 'NASA,' is punctuated by thumping bass and trap drums that have made their way from Atlanta all the way into mainstream pop." The fourth track is "Bloodline." It is a reggae-pop song with R&B influences that contains brassy horns and a pounding bass. It has been compared to Grande's 2016 single "Side to Side" and "Greedy" from her third studio album, Dangerous Woman. The song features a sound bite from Marjorie Grande, Grande's grandmother, in which she is talking about a hearing aid. The Guardian wrote that the song "posits the idea that maybe it’s best to just see how things go relationship-wise and getting engaged after a few months isn’t essential", believing that this song is about Pete Davidson.co-wrote most of the songs on the album.
The fifth track of the record is "Fake Smile", a hip hop soul-inspired track with a trap groove. Lyrically, the song is about the attack on her concert in Manchester and the death of ex-boyfriend Mac Miller, and the emotional toll that these events inflicted upon her. Chloe Crookshanks from Medium stated that the song is "Weaved in with some funky muted bass, she states candidly her understandable disdain for putting on a show ". "Bad Idea" is an EDM and trap number, beginning with an 80's rock-ballad intro that garnered comparison to David Guetta's 2012 hit single "Titanium" featuring Sia. With an orchestra throughout the bridge and outro, its lyrics are about Grande's desire to numb her pain. The seventh track "Make Up" is Grande's most sexually explicit song on the album, featuring many double entendres. It is a trap record with wonky pop and bubblegum influences and it contains a "rap-influenced bridge". A Bit Of Pop Music wrote, "she wants to fight with her partner only so they can make up later, while also wanting him to ruin her make up." "Ghostin", the eighth track, is an emotional synth-and-strings ballad. Lyrically, it discusses Grande's last two relationships, stating that "she should ghost the guy that still makes her cry and wants to stop hurting the person she is with now while he is being patient with her," being Miller and Davidson. Savan Kotecha, who co-wrote the song with Grande, told Rolling Stone of working on the track: " 'Ghostin,' we were in New York... The song speaks for itself in terms of what it's about. We were with her for a week in New York witnessing that, witnessing her feelings on that." NME stated that it was "One of the record’s most talked-about tracks" and also "one of the album’s most devastating moments." According to Grande, she "begged" her manager, Scooter Braun, to remove the track from the album, but he convinced her to keep it.
The ninth track "In My Head" begins with an excerpt of a voicemail from by Grande's close friend Doug Middlebrook. It is a trap-pop hybrid with many R&B influences. Medium said that "Grande addresses her failure to see people for who they truly are." "7 Rings," the tenth track, is a trap-pop and R&B song. It features a heavy bass and sees Grande discuss "how global success has allowed her to enjoy the finer things". Billboard magazine noted it's "the most hip-hop-leaning song Grande has released in the post-Sweetener era yet, with Grande almost rapping the song's verses". The album's lead single, "Thank U, Next" is the eleventh track on the album. A self-empowerment pop and R&B song with elements of synth-pop, its lyrics discuss many of Grande's past relationships. Grande explained in an interview that "thank u, next..." is a phrase that she and fellow singer/songwriter Victoria Monét use. Markos Papadatos from Digital Journal said the song is an "ode to gratitude, an anthem to a fresh start and new beginnings, where she is not afraid to be raw and vulnerable; Grande's vulnerability is the listener's reward." He also said the song is "sultry, cathartic and expressive" and praised Grande's breathy vocals as "pristine and heavenly, and it is evident the pop throne is still hers. 'thank u, next' garners an A rating." The final track "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" is a trap-pop and R&B song. It was said to be Grande's most eye-catching song from the album. The track replaced "Remember", a song previously planned to be on the album, but was too personal for Grande to release. It samples "It Makes Me Ill" by NSYNC in the bridge. Medium states that "Ariana's to lift the energy, injecting a sense of sensuality, playfulness and questionable behaviour."
Release and promotion
Thank U, Next was released worldwide on February 8, 2019 by Republic Records, five months and twenty-two days after Sweetener, which was released in August 2018. On releasing the album so soon after her previous offering, Grande said "my dream has always been to be — obviously not a rapper, but, like, to put out music in the way that a rapper does. I feel like there are certain standards that pop women are held to that men aren't." Commenting on previous release strategies, she explained that "we have to do the teaser before the single, then do the single, and wait to do the preorder, and radio has to impact before the video, and we have to do the discount on this day, and all this shit. It's just like, 'Bruh, I just want to fucking talk to my fans and sing and write music and drop it the way these boys do. Why do they get to make records like that and I don't?' So I do and I did and I am, and I will continue to."The album cover art, shot by Alfredo Flores, shows Grande laying upside-down on the floor with the album title painted on her neck. The digital edition cover features a pink border, whilst the physical edition features a black border.
Tour
On October 25, 2018, Grande officially announced the Sweetener World Tour, in promotion of both Thank U, Next and Sweetener. The tour began on March 18, 2019, with the first leg consisting of 53 shows across North America. The second leg of the tour began on August 17, 2019, consisting of 28 shows across Europe. Normani and Social House were announced as the opening acts for the first leg of the tour.Singles
The title track was released as the lead single from the album on November 3, 2018 without prior announcements. Commercially, the single was a massive success, peaking at number-one of the charts of 12 countries and breaking a string of records, including the record for the most plays in a single day by a female artist on Spotify. The song also became Grande's first number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100. She performed the song on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on November 7. Its accompanying music video was released on November 30, which broke the records for both the most-watched music video in YouTube within 24 hours and the fastest Vevo video to reach 100 million views on YouTube. The song spawned an Internet meme, inspired by the lyrics One taught me love/one taught me patience / one taught me pain". In a similar fashion, it has also been used as a slogan."7 Rings" was released as the second single on January 18, 2019. The track was also commercially successful, peaking atop of the charts of 15 countries, including the US, debuting atop of the Billboard Hot 100, making Grande the third female artist to have two or more songs debuting at the top slot of the Hot 100. This also made Grande the third artist in history to have an album with two songs that debuted at number one on the Hot 100, after Drake's Scorpion in 2018 and Mariah Carey's Daydream in 1995. "7 Rings" also broke the record for the most streamed song in 24 hours on Spotify, receiving 14.9 million streams globally. It received generally mixed reviews from music critics, and was the center of plagiarism accusations from multiple artists. "7 Rings" was also nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.
"Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" was released as the third single on February 8, 2019, the same day the album was released. The song debuted atop of the charts in Ireland and the United Kingdom. In the latter, Grande became the first female artist to replace herself at number one on the chart, and joined only three other artists in having three chart-topping singles in under 100 days. As the track became her fifth number-one single in Ireland, Grande now also holds the record for the most number ones in the 2010s decade on the chart, alongside Rihanna. "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" debuted at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Grande's 13th top ten single on the chart. With this single at number two, "7 Rings" at number one and "Thank U, Next" at number three, Grande became the first artist to monopolize the top three on the chart since The Beatles in 1964.
Promotional single
"Imagine" was released as the album's only promotional single on December 14, 2018. Grande performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on December 18.Critical reception
Upon release, Thank U, Next received widespread acclaim from music critics, with many praising the production and its cohesiveness. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 86 based on 24 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim"; it is the highest Metascore for any of Grande's albums.Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone stated that Thank U, Next is "one of the year's best pop albums so far, even in a 2019 that's already turning out to be a great one for new music. Thank U, Next makes you suspect that the best Ariana is yet to come." Ross Horton from The Line of Best Fit praised both the songwriting and production of the album, stating that it is an "airtight, dense pop record with an obnoxiously brash production" and commenting that "even the most delicate, sensual things here are tightly compressed and scrubbed of anything resembling acoustics." AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine also gave the album a positive review, commenting that "Grande is swaggering with confidence" and concluding that the album "embodies every aspect of Ariana Grande, the grand pop star." Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times said, "Thank U, Next flaunts Grande's emotional healing; it's suffused with the joy of discovering that what didn't kill her really did make her stronger."
Michael Cragg of The Guardian commented that Thank U, Next seems to be a "result of a burst of creativity and a prevailing mood", yet criticized "7 Rings" as a "braggadocious, ice-cold low point" of the album. He concluded positively, stating that Grande is a "pop star finally working out who they are and what they want to say" and compared the album to Rihanna's Anti. Helen Brown from The Independent stated that Grande is "embracing her inner mean girl owning her flaws and contradictions" on tracks such as "Needy" and "NASA", yet concluded that the album lacks enough "vocal grit". Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine awarded the album three-and-a-half stars out of five, believing that the album "is easily Grande's most sonically consistent effort to date". He criticized that "some of the tracks tend to blur together", but ultimately concluded in saying that Grande's "refusal to fake a smile that proves to be what makes her so damn likeable." In a capsule review for Vice, Robert Christgau gave the album a three-star honorable mention and summed it up as Grande's "maturing from multitracked studio trickeration to straight love songs—love songs an old grouch might complain are all too superstar-specific"; the title track and "Ghostin'" were cited as highlights.
Thank U, Next was named as one of the best albums of 2019. MTV named it as one of the ten albums of 2019, stating that the album "unpacks love, lust, and pain in a metallic pop coating. It's cooler, weirder, and deeper than Sweetener, and manages to make that project look shockingly surface-level". Billboard ranked Thank U, Next as their number best album of 2019, stating that "the pop princess officially became a queen".
This was also the second consecutive year that Billboard ranked Grande's album as the best of year after naming the artist's previous album, Sweetener, as their number one best album of 2018. Billboard complimented Grande's liberation to guilt, emotional restraint and independence, they said "in the aftermath of her personal struggles from that year, she found solace in the studio, sipping champagne with her friends and collaborators, while writing and recording the best album of her career in just two weeks" and praised Grande's album as if "The First Wives Club was an album". Thank U, Next placed on Billboard
| Publication | Accolade | Rank | |
| Afisha Daily | The Best Foreign Albums of 2019 | 17 | |
| AllMusic | Best of 2019 | ||
| Associated Press | AP's Top Albums of 2019 | 7 | |
| BBC | Top 10 Albums of 2019 | 8 | |
| Billboard | The 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 1 | |
| Billboard | The 100 Greatest Albums of the 2010s | 8 | |
| Clash | The Best Albums of 2019 | 40 | |
| Complex | The Best Albums of 2019 | 3 | |
| Consequence of Sound | Top 50 Albums of 2019 | 5 | |
| Consequence of Sound | Top 100 Albums of the 2010s | 97 | |
| Esquire | The Best Albums of 2019 | ||
| GQ | The Best Albums of 2019 | ||
| GQ | The albums that made 2019 great again | 2 | |
| GQ | The 20 Best Albums of 2019 | ||
| The Guardian | The 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 16 | |
| Idolator | The 20 Best Pop Albums Of 2019 | 14 | |
| The Independent | The 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 42 | |
| Metro | 26 Albums of the Decade | ||
| The New York Times | Best Albums of 2019 | 11 | |
| NME | The 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 30 | |
| NPR | The Best Albums Of 2019 | ||
| Our Culture Mag | 20 Best Albums of 2019 | ||
| Paste | The 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 27 | |
| People | The 10 Best Albums of 2019 | 1 | |
| Pitchfork | The 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 29 | |
| PopCrush | 25 Best Albums of 2019 | ||
| Rolling Stone | The 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 1 | |
| Rolling Stone | The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s | 30 | |
| Slate | The Best Albums of 2019 | ||
| Stereogum | The 50 Best Albums Of 2019 | 34 | |
| Thrillist | The Best Albums of 2019 | 30 | |
| Uproxx | The Best Albums of 2019 | 2 | |
| Uproxx | The Best Albums Of The 2010s | 48 | |
| Us Weekly | 10 Best Albums of 2019 | 2 | |
| Variety | The Best Albums of 2019 | 9 |
Awards and nominations
Commercial performance
In the United States, Thank U, Next debuted at number-one on the US Billboard 200 chart, with 360,000 album-equivalent units moved, out of which 116,000 were pure sales. It became Grande's fourth number-one album in the country, and broke the record for the largest streaming week ever for a pop album. On the Billboard Hot 100 chart, issue dated February 20, all twelve songs from Thank U, Next appeared simultaneously; eleven of those songs appeared in the top 40, breaking the record for the most simultaneous top 40 entries by a female artist. In its second week, the album remained atop the chart, earning an additional 151,000 units, becoming Grande's first album to spend two weeks at number one. The album has spent 19 non-consecutive weeks in the top ten of the Billboard 200. On June 15, 2020, Thank U, Next was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America exceeding two million units in the US. As of June 2020, the album has sold 302,000 copies in the country.In the United Kingdom, Thank U, Next debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with 65,000 album-equivalent units. The album became Grande's third number-one on the chart and marked her largest album opening week to date there. Earning 59 million streams, Thank U, Next set a new record for most album streams ever by a female artist in a week in the country, beating her previous album, Sweetener. Following its release, "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, replacing "7 Rings", with the latter returning to number one the following week, making Grande the first female solo artist since Madonna in 1985 to simultaneously hold the number one and two spots on the UK Singles Chart and the first musical artist to replace herself twice consecutively at number one in UK chart history. Also, "Needy" peaked at number eight on the chart. Thank U, Next also was 2019's third fastest-selling download by a female artist in UK, behind Taylor Swift's Lover and Pink's Hurts 2B Human.
In Ireland, the album also became Grande's third number one on the Irish Albums Chart, outselling the rest of the top five combined with nearly 5,389 units. Upon its release, Thank U, Next became the only female album this decade to feature three Irish number-one singles. Following the success of the album, Sweetener arose three places to number 8, and Dangerous Woman re-entered the top fifty at number 43.
In Australia, the album debuted at number one on the Australian Albums Chart, becoming Grande's fourth number one in the territory. All twelve album tracks also appeared on the ARIA Singles Chart, including nine debuts.
Thank U, Next has sold more than 1 million pure copies worldwide. It was the eighth best-selling album of 2019 globally and ranked fourth among female artists. Grande also ranked as the sixth best-selling artist of 2019 globally and third among female artists.
Track listing
Samples
- "Fake Smile" contains a sample of "After Laughter " by Wendy Rene, written by Joseph W. Frierson and Mary Lou Frierson.
- "7 Rings" interpolates portions of "My Favorite Things", written by Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers.
- "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" contains an interpolation of "It Makes Me Ill" by NSYNC. RR exclusive edition boyfriend Ariana Grande and social House
Personnel
Vocals
- Ariana Grande – primary artist
- Victoria Monét – background vocals
- Tayla Parx – background vocals
- Marjorie Grande – background vocals
- Doug Middlebrook – background vocals
- Shangela Laquifa Wadley – uncredited vocals
Instrumentation
- Happy Perez – guitar, keyboards
- Pop Wansel – keyboards
- Peter Lee Johnson – strings
- Wojtek Bylund – alto saxophone
- Ilya Salmanzadeh – bass, drums, guitar, keyboards, string arrangement
- Janne Bjerger – trumpet
- Max Martin – bass, drums, guitar, keyboards, string arrangement
- Mattias Bylund – horns arrangement, strings, string arrangement, violin
- Magnus Johannson – trumpet
- Peter Noos Johannson – trombone
- Tomas Johannson – tenor saxophone
- JProof – keyboards
- David Bukovinszky – cello
- Alexander West – guitar
- Larrance Dopson – guitar
- Mattias Johansson – violin
Production
- Ariana Grande – executive production, vocal production, musical arranger
- Scooter Braun – executive production
- Happy Perez – production
- Pop Wansel – production
- Tommy Brown – production
- Charles Anderson – production
- Max Martin – production, vocal production
- Ilya Salmanzadeh – production, vocal production
- Brian Baptiste – production
- Michael Foster – production
- Victoria Monét – vocal production
- Tayla Parx – vocal production
- NOVA Wav – co-production
- Andrew Luftman – production coordination
- Sarah Shelton – production coordination
- Zvi Edelman – production coordination
Technical
- Happy Perez – programming
- Pop Wansel – programming
- Tommy Brown – programming
- Charles Anderson – programming
- Ilya Salmanzadeh – programming
- Max Martin – programming
- Michael Foster – programming
- John Hanes – mixing, mixing assistance
- Serban Ghenea – mixing
- Billy Hickey – engineering
- Sam Holland – engineering
- Brendan Morawski – recording, engineering
- Joe Gallagher – recording, engineering
- Sean Klein – recording assistance, remix engineering assistance
- Jeremy Lertola – recording assistance
- Cory Bice – recording assistance
Artwork
- Jessica Severn – art direction and design
- Brian "kid orange" Nicholson - Neck tag/graffiti artwork
- Alfredo Flores– photography
Charts