Ariana Grande (born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Renowned for her impressive four-octave vocal range that reaches the whistle register, she is widely considered one of the most influential figures in modern pop music. Publications such as Rolling Stone and Billboard have listed her among the greatest artists of all time, while Time magazine recognized her as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in both 2016 and 2019.

Ariana Grande began her career as a teenager in the Broadway musical 13 (2008) before rising to fame for her role as Cat Valentine on the Nickelodeon series Victorious (2010–2013) and its spin-off Sam & Cat (2013–2014). After signing with Republic Records, she released her debut studio album, Yours Truly (2013), a retro pop and R&B project that debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. Her following albums, My Everything (2014) and Dangerous Woman (2016), incorporated electronic influences and achieved international acclaim with hit singles such as “Problem,” “Break Free,” “Bang Bang,” “One Last Time,” “Into You,” and “Side to Side.”

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Ariana Grande explored trap and contemporary R&B sounds on her albums Sweetener (2018) and Thank U, Next (2019). Sweetener earned her first Grammy Award, while Thank U, Next produced two U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, “Thank U, Next” and “7 Rings.” With the title track from Positions (2020) and her collaborations “Stuck with U” and “Rain on Me,” she set the record for the most number-one debuts in Billboard history. After a brief break from music, she returned with Eternal Sunshine (2024), a dance-oriented record featuring the chart-topping singles “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love).” Her performance as Glinda in the 2024 film Wicked earned her an Academy Award nomination, following her earlier acting comeback in the 2021 satire Don’t Look Up.

Ariana Grande is among the best-selling music artists in history, with over 90 million records sold worldwide. Forbes named her the highest-paid female musician of 2020. Her achievements include two Grammy Awards, one Brit Award, two Billboard Music Awards, three American Music Awards, thirteen MTV Video Music Awards, and 39 Guinness World Records. With six number-one albums on the Billboard 200 and nine singles that have topped the Billboard Hot 100, she remains a dominant force in global pop music. Beyond entertainment, she actively supports animal rights, mental health awareness, and equality for women, racial minorities, and the LGBTQ+ community. She is also a successful entrepreneur, having launched her cosmetics line R.E.M. Beauty in 2021 and a billion-dollar fragrance line. On social media, she ranks among the most-followed people in the world, currently holding the sixth-highest follower count on Instagram.

Ariana Grande-Butera was born on June 26, 1993, in Boca Raton, Florida. She is the daughter of Joan Grande, a Brooklyn native and the CEO of Hose-McCann Communications—a company specializing in marine communication systems that has been owned by the Grande family since 1964—and Edward Butera, who runs a graphic design business in Boca Raton. Grande is of Italian heritage and has described herself as an Italian American with family roots in Sicily and Abruzzo. She has an older half-brother, Frankie Grande, who works as both an entertainer and producer. Before Ariana’s birth, her family relocated from New York to Florida, and her parents separated when she was about eight or nine years old. She shared a particularly close bond with her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Grande.

At the age of eight, Grande performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at a Florida Panthers hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks on January 16, 2002. As a child, she appeared in productions with the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theater, taking on her first role as the main character in the musical Annie. She also participated in the group’s performances of The Wizard of Oz and Beauty and the Beast. Around this time, she sang at karaoke events on cruise ships and performed with several orchestras, including the South Florida Philharmonic, Florida Sunshine Pops, and the Symphonic Orchestras. She attended Pine Crest School and later North Broward Preparatory School.

When Grande first visited Los Angeles to meet with her management team, she expressed her dream of creating an R&B album, saying, “I told them, ‘I want to make an R&B album.’ They were like, ‘That’s quite a goal! Who’s going to buy a 14-year-old’s R&B record?’”

In 2008, she landed the role of Charlotte, a cheerleader, in the Broadway musical 13. The following year, in 2009, she was cast in Nickelodeon’s TV show Victorious alongside her 13 co-star Elizabeth Gillies. In the series, which takes place at a performing arts high school, Grande played Cat Valentine, a “sweet but somewhat scatterbrained” student. To maintain her character’s signature look, she dyed her hair red every couple of weeks, which caused significant damage to it.

When Victorious premiered in March 2010, it became Nickelodeon’s second-most-watched live-action debut, drawing in 5.7 million viewers. The role catapulted Grande into teen idol fame, though she admitted that while acting was enjoyable, her greatest passion had always been music.

After the first season of Victorious ended, Grande decided to concentrate on her music career and started developing her debut album in August 2010.[23] The show’s second season debuted in April 2011, attracting 6.2 million viewers and becoming its highest-rated episode.[24] In May 2011, Grande was featured in Greyson Chance’s music video for “Unfriend You” from his album Hold On ’til the Night (2011), playing the role of his former girlfriend. She made her first musical contribution that August with the song “Give It Up” from the Victorious soundtrack. During the filming of Victorious, Grande recorded herself performing covers of songs by Adele, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey, which she uploaded to YouTube.[25] A friend of Republic Records’ CEO, Monte Lipman, discovered one of the videos and shared it with him. Impressed by her voice, Lipman offered Grande a recording contract.[6] In November 2011, she provided the English voice for the main character in the Spanish animated movie Snowflake, the White Gorilla.[26][27] Between 2011 and 2013, she also played the fairy Princess Diaspro in Nickelodeon’s reboot of Winx Club.

In December 2011, Grande debuted her first single, “Put Your Hearts Up,” which had been recorded for a possible pop album aimed at teenagers, though the project was ultimately shelved. Later on, she distanced herself from the track, expressing dislike for its bubblegum pop style and stating that she wasn’t interested in pursuing that kind of music. Despite this, the song went on to receive a Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

OnJune 5, 2012, Grande contributed vocals to the song “5 Fingaz to the Face” for the Victorious 2.0 extended play soundtrack, which featured performances from the show’s cast. The following soundtrack, Victorious 3.0, arrived on November 6, 2012, and included a duet between Grande and Victoria Justice titled “L.A. Boyz.” A music video for the song was released shortly afterward. Later that year, in December 2012, Grande teamed up with British singer-songwriter Mika for a duet version of his song “Popular Song.”

After four seasons, Victorious came to an end, with its final episode airing in February 2013. Around that time, Grande portrayed Snow White in the Pasadena Playhouse’s holiday musical A Snow White Christmas, which also starred Charlene Tilton and Neil Patrick Harris. She also appeared as Amanda Benson in Swindle, a Nickelodeon TV movie based on the children’s novel of the same name.

Meanwhile, Nickelodeon launched a new spin-off series titled Sam & Cat, combining characters from iCarly and Victorious. The show featured Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande reprising their roles as Sam Puckett and Cat Valentine, two roommates who start a babysitting service after school.

Ariana Grande released her debut album, Yours Truly, on August 30, 2013.[38] The record, which blends pop and R&B with influences from 1950s doo-wop, entered the US Billboard 200 chart at number one, selling 138,000 copies in its first week.[39][40][41] Yours Truly also reached the top ten in various countries, such as Australia,[42] the United Kingdom,[43] Ireland,[44] and the Netherlands.[45] Its lead single, “The Way,” featuring rapper Mac Miller from Pittsburgh, debuted at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and later climbed to number nine, where it stayed for two weeks.[46][47] Minder Music later filed a lawsuit against Grande for allegedly borrowing the lyric “What we gotta do right here is go back, back in time” from The Jimmy Castor Bunch’s 1972 song “Troglodyte (Cave Man).”[48] The album’s second single, “Baby I,” dropped in July,[49] while the third, “Right There,” featuring Detroit rapper Big Sean, arrived in August 2013.[50] They reached numbers 21 and 84, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100.[51]

Grande also recorded the duet “Almost Is Never Enough” with Nathan Sykes of The Wanted, which came out as a promotional single in August 2013. That same year, she joined Justin Bieber on a few dates of his Believe Tour and later launched her own short headlining tour, The Listening Sessions.[52] At the 2013 American Music Awards, she was honored with the New Artist of the Year award.[53][54] In December, she released a holiday EP titled Christmas Kisses, featuring four songs.[55] The Music Business Association recognized Grande as the Breakthrough Artist of the Year for her success throughout 2013.[56]

By January 2014, Grande had begun working on her sophomore album alongside singer-songwriter Ryan Tedder and producers Benny Blanco and Max Martin.[57] That month, she also received the Favorite Breakout Artist award at the 2014 People’s Choice Awards.[56] In March, she performed at the White House’s “Women of Soul: In Performance at the White House” concert.[58] The following month, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama invited her back to sing at the White House Easter Egg Roll event.