Just weeks after ending her engagement to Pete Davidson, Ariana Grande dropped a new single , “Thank U, Next.” The powerful anthem, a tribute to her exes, is smashing music records. Its lyrics have also inspired November’s hottest meme. Billboard Woman of the Year Ariana Grande keeps setting new records only to surpass them. In recent days, she’s been doing it with the same song, as she shared on Instagram. “Thank u, next has surpassed 100 MILLION streams on spotify in only 11 days,” reads a graphic shared on social media. The graphic puts that in perspective: “it is the fastest song in HISTORY to reach this milestone.” Ariana shared the image with a very grateful black heart emoji in the captions. Keep in mind that that’s only her Spotify success. It doesn’t include people listening on YouTube — or pirating it. Her record-smashing feat doesn’t include people using other streaming services. It also doesn’t include those of us who eschew streaming music and instead immediately purchased it from iTunes or Amazon. Part of the appeal is that it’s a beautiful song. The song’s real meaning also contributed to its success. “Thank U, Next” is an anthem to Ariana’s exes — to three, in particular. Ariana had an 8-month relationship with Big Sean from 2014 to 2015. “Thought I’d end up with Sean / But he wasn’t a match,” Ariana sings. Starting in the summer of 2015, Ariana dated backup dancer Ricky Alvarez for about a year. “Wrote some songs about Ricky / Now I listen and laugh,” Ariana sings. Famously, Ariana got engaged to Saturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson, and broke things off in October. “Even almost got married / And for Pete, I’m so thankful,” Ariana’s lyrics affirm. On a sadder note, she dated Mac Miller for two years starting in 2016. He died just a few months ago. “Wish I could say, ‘Thank you’ to Malcolm / ‘Cause he was an angel,” Ariana sings bittersweetly. “Thank U, Next” appeals to people as a song and as an athem. Some can relate in their own lives — they really appreciate their past loves and past relationships. Others are just Ariana Grande fans and love to hear how at peace she is with her romantic past. But it’s more than just a song, folks. It’s a meme. For ages now, social media has been filled with “one taught me love, one taught me patience, one taught me pain” posts. These posts, quoting lyrics from Ariana’s song, can do everything from critique three films or three characters or three condiments. Of course, Ariana’s release of this song such a short time after ending her relationship with Pete Davidson has fueled conspiracy theorists. There are people in the world who believes that all celebrity activities, from relationships to their art to overdoses and deaths, are a scripted facade. These are the same people who use words like “illuminati” and “Deep State” with total sincerity. So they think that for some unknowable reason, Ariana and Pete were “ordered” by, like, Beyonce or George Soros to get engaged, then split. According to this admittedly hilarious theory, Ariana had this song prepared and mixed for whenever they were ordered to break up. Why? Maybe, like, mind-control embedded in the song. It did release right before election day! Ariana being a talented and passionate musician with the resources to pull together a song quickly is apparently too simple of an explanation. There is a glaring omission from Ariana’s song — her ex Graham Phillips. They performed together on Broadway along with current Dynasty star Elizabeth Gillies. You might know Graham from The Good Wife or from his more recent appearance on Riverdale as a seriously awful dude. Our guess is that the fact that they dated in 2011, when Ariana was mostly just known as a Nickelodeon star, is a factor. Also, she probably just views Graham as a friend whom she once dated. There’s a difference between that and an “ex.” In case you were wondering if there was bad blood, we looked into it and found no evidence of hard feelings. In fact, they staged a mini-reunion this past summer with another former castmate. Ariana was probably right to narrow her scope of exes to a handful. View Slideshow: Ariana Grande vs. Pete Davidson: Whose Side Should You Take In This Ugly Breakup?
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Ariana Grande Obliterates Spotify Records with "Thank U, Next"
