November 3rd, 2018 is a date that Ariana 'stans' and pop music lovers will remember forever. It was a calm Saturday night that immediately went into chaos once Ariana Grande tweeted lyrics from the song. Then, at 11:02 PM (30 minutes before, ex-fiancé, Pete Davidson was supposed to appear on Saturday Night Live), she tweeted a link for people on different streaming platforms to listen to and stream the song! It had been a surprise released!
Fans and people with taste in music were instantly in love with the song as one fan tweeted Ariana: "This is your best song ever, period." The song was catchy, yet one of the most heartbreaking and personal songs Ariana has put out, ever. In just its first 24 hours, the song already broke two records. On November 5th, 'thank u, next' broke Spotify's global, single-day streaming record for a female artist with over 8.2 million streams, according to Spotify Charts. The following day, the song broke its own record with 8.5 million streams in one day.
Ariana Grande - thank u, next (lyric video) www.youtube.com
Another huge accomplishment of 'thank u, next' was that it became Ariana's first song to debut #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. As of now, it has stayed on the Hot 100 chart for three consecutive weeks, which is also a first in Ariana's career.
Numbers aside, 'thank u, next' instantly became an anthem for anyone who experienced heartbreak. One user tweeted "Ariana Grande is one song away from making girls never talk to guys again" to which Ariana quote-tweeted and said, "thank God".
Ariana later performed the song on Ellen (video link below), to which she was inspired by a scene in "First Wives Club". This sparked Ariana's idea for the 'thank u, next' music video (released November 30th)
Ariana Grande - thank u, next (Live on Ellen / 2018) www.youtube.com
Inspired by early 2000's 'chick flicks', Ariana began tweeting photos of herself from different parts of the video with a movie quote that inspired the shot.
Here, she references the popular fish-out-of-water, rom-com hybrid, "Legally Blonde":
‘whoever said orange was the new pink was seriously disturbed’ https://t.co/KUgl6vwHIn— Ariana Grande (@Ariana Grande) 1542726821.0
And in a later tweet, she references the widely popular cheerleading comedy "Bring It On":
‘i transferred from los angeles, your school has no gymnastics team this issaalast resort ........ ok i’ve never ch… https://t.co/tMUt28sk3W— Ariana Grande (@Ariana Grande) 1542823812.0
One of the major focal points of the music video centers around the movie "Mean Girls." This was first teased when Ariana tweeted a photo of the "Burn Book" (featured in Mean Girls), but with "thank u, next" written on the cover. Ariana then posted a group shot with some familiar faces.
https://t.co/kIoeT9xLNa— Ariana Grande (@Ariana Grande) 1543073888.0
No, that's not Lindsay Lohan reprising her role as Cady Heron, but it's Liz Gillies, Ariana's close friend and co-star from the Nickelodeon show, Victorious. Not only that but behind the group of girls is Jonathan Bennett, reprising his role as Aaron Samuels.
In the days leading up to the video, Ariana tweeted a trailer for the video:
https://t.co/4N3nOwp5Gr— Ariana Grande (@Ariana Grande) 1543298532.0
This trailer spoofs one of the most popular scenes in Mean Girls, where students around school recount on Regina George's 'greatness':
Mean Girls - Meet the Plastics youtu.be
Needless to say, this music video will garner a lot of attention and offer a sense of nostalgia to those who grew up in the early 2000s, but it will show the younger fans a whole set of movies that they probably have never heard about.
'thank u, next' has accomplished a lot in its first month, but this is only the start. 'thank u, next' is only the first single off of Ariana's newest project and I am very excited to see what that will accomplish and what new heights Ariana will achieve as an artist.
