Ariana Grande – “thank u, next”

Ariana Grande – “thank u, next”

In case you missed 2018 so far, Ariana Grande put out one of the best albums of the year, sang with Parkland survivors at March Of Our Lives, broke her hand in an escape room with James Corden, got groped by a bishop at Aretha Franklin’s funeral, and mourned her ex-boyfriend Mac Miller. Oh, and she got engaged to and then broke up with comedian Pete Davidson, with whom she’d adopted a pet pig. That album, Sweetener, is less than three months old, but Grande’s been teasing the follow-up for a few weeks already and tonight we get our first taste of it.

“thank u, next” is apparently AG5’s final and title track, and per TMZ it was intentionally released right before tonight’s SNL to beat Grande’s ex-fiancé to the punch lest he make light of their whirlwind romance on the show. (Davidson jokingly proposed to tonight’s musical guest Maggie Rogers in Thursday’s promo, and Grande was not happy about that.)

“thank u, next,” the pop star tweeted earlier tonight, is “for my …… ex” but “far from a diss track …. it’s the opposite.” It’s an empowerment anthem that namechecks Pete and Mac as well as (Big) Sean and Ricky (Alvarez) in the first verse. No word when the album’s out, but she indicated on Twitter that it will have 12 tracks and no features. Listen below.

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