Ariana Grande has a lot of gratitude for Thank U, Next. While reflecting on her career in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter podcast, the singer-actress opened up about the therapeutic powers her smash 2019 album had during a “dark” period in her life.
Of writing and recording Thank U, Next over the span of two weeks just a few months after her previous album, Sweeter, dropped in August 2018, Grande said on the episode posted Monday (Feb. 3), “I think I needed it.”
“I was doing so much therapy, and I was dealing with PTSD and all different kinds of grief and depression and anxiety,” she continued. “I was, of course, treating it very seriously, but having music be a part of that remedy was absolutely contributing to saving my life. They were dark times, and the music brought so much levity.”
It’s not the first time the “Yes, And?” singer has opened up about pouring herself into the Thank U, Next creative process. Around the time she was making the album, she publicly dealt with the grief of losing ex-boyfriend Mac Miller, who died in September 2018, as well as the heartbreak of her split from ex-fiancé Pete Davidson the following October. Months prior, Grande’s Manchester concert was targeted by a deadly terrorist attack, after which she struggled with PTSD.
“[Thank U, Next] poured out with urgency, and it was made with urgency,” she added on Awards Chatter. “It was a means of survival. The label understood that, but they were also very hesitant to stop Sweetener dead in its tracks and move onto an album so quickly … I just said, ‘I don’t really care about the formula. I don’t want to play by the rules at this moment, because this is what I need for my soul.’ It felt really healing and freeing.”
The album ended up spending two weeks atop the Billboard 200, with its title track leading the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 1 for a total of seven weeks. Grande performed songs from both LPs on her subsequent Sweetener World Tour in 2019 — during which time she started hearing “murmurs” that her favorite Broadway musical, Wicked, was in talks to get the live-action treatment in Hollywood, she told Awards Chatter.
Flash forward more than half a decade, and Grande is now Oscar-nominated for her portrayal of Glinda in Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the show. After the academy unveiled its nominees in late January, the “We Can’t Be Friends” artist wrote on Instagram, “i’m humbled and deeply honored to be in such brilliant company and sharing this with tiny ari who sat and studied Judy Garland singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow just before the big, beautiful bubble entered.”
“i don’t quite have all my words yet, i’m still trying to breathe,” she added of her best supporting actress nod at the time. “but thank you. oh my goodness, thank you.”
