{"id":74576,"date":"2025-09-20T03:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T03:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/74576\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T03:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T03:17:11","slug":"how-she-became-one-of-pops-most-powerful-voices-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/74576\/","title":{"rendered":"How She Became One of Pop\u2019s Most Powerful Voices (Exclusive)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few artists embody ambition and artistry quite like Ariana Grande<\/a>. From her earliest days as a theater kid with Broadway dreams to her current reign as one of pop\u2019s most powerful voices, Ariana<\/a> has built a career on exceeding expectations while setting new ones for herself in the process. <\/p>\n

In an excerpt of a new Ariana Grande<\/a> book out this October, Ariana Grande: The Rise of a Dangerous Woman<\/a>, Ariana’s career path is explored as writers examine how the superstar has honed her craft, defied industry norms, and continually reinvented her sound. Here is more about the book:<\/p>\n

Get an insider\u2019s look at Ariana Grande’s victorious performing career in this luxe hardcover gift book that’s perfect for Arianators 100+ stunning photos and insights from top music and culture writers explore the pop icon\u2019s music, style and cultural influence\u2013and just how she\u2019s defied gravity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To pre-order the book, click on the retailer of your choice:<\/p>\n

AMAZON<\/a> TARGET<\/a> BARNES & NOBLE<\/a> BOOKS-A-MILLION<\/a> POWELL’S<\/a><\/p>\n

“Ariana’s Musical Evolution” from Ariana Grande: The Rise of a Dangerous Woman<\/p>\n

When Ariana Grande<\/a> made her first moves toward embarking on a pop career, she had a definite goal in mind: She wanted to make an R&B album in the vein of India.Arie, whose introspective cuts like \u201cVideo\u201d made her one of neo-soul\u2019s premier singer-songwriters and whose music Ariana had discovered while mainlining music as a child. She told the managers she\u2019d been working with, and they were incredulous at the then-fourteen-year-old\u2019s moxie. \u201cThey were like, \u2018Um, that\u2019s a helluva goal!\u2019\u201d she told Billboard in 2014.<\/p>\n

Ariana Grande: The Rise of a Dangerous Woman<\/p>\n

\"Ariana<\/a><\/p>\n

But Ariana\u2019s whole career has been about setting \u201chelluva goals\u201d and surpassing them beyond anyone\u2019s expectations\u2014except, perhaps, her own. While those initial meetings as a young teen didn\u2019t result in a record deal, by the time she released her debut album, the candy-coated love letter to ’90s R&B and old-school doo-wop, Yours Truly, she\u2019d gained enough autonomy over her music career to kick it off in a fashion that, she said, felt true to her.<\/p>\n

MUSIC FROM THE START<\/p>\n

Music surrounded Ariana as a child. Her family held living-room karaoke sessions where she enjoyed the full range of their musical passions. Her mother, Joan Grande, loved big-voiced divas like Barbra Streisand and C\u00e9line Dion, while her dad, Edward Butera<\/a>, was more of a Beatles fan. Her older half-brother Frankie\u2019s selections, meanwhile, were \u201ca mix of everything,\u201d Ari told Fresh Air in 2025, from late-twentieth-century pop icons like Spice Girls and Madonna to his cherished musical-theater icon Judy Garland.<\/p>\n

Ariana found her own voice early on. Joan told People that Ariana belted out \u201cone of JC [Chasez]\u2019s power high notes\u201d while the two were driving around listening to the hitmaking boy band *NSYNC. Ariana was only three and a half at the time, and her mother expressed amazement at her daughter\u2019s vocal power. Even at that age, Ariana was nonchalant about her talents. \u201cShe thought everybody sounded like that,\u201d Joan said.<\/p>\n

\"arianaRich Polk\/GG2025\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ariana Grande and her mom Joan at the 2025 Golden Globes.<\/p>\n

ARIANA DEVELOPS HER TALENT<\/p>\n

As Ariana developed her craft, singing in musical productions at home in Boca Raton, Florida, and on Broadway as well as on her YouTube channel, she also figured out the kind of music she liked to make, producing songs on GarageBand that took cues from art-pop producer-vocalist Imogen Heap, an electropop pioneer whose songs like the striking 2005 cut \u201cHide and Seek\u201d were beloved for their intricate construction and multilayered vocals.<\/p>\n

Ariana\u2019s range and power invited comparisons to Mariah Carey\u2014a flattering resemblance because Carey was someone, Ariana told Fresh Air, she\u2019d \u201clooked up to\u2026 endlessly\u201d alongside Whitney Houston and Dion. \u201cI think that\u2019s a large part of the reason why I learned to sing, because that\u2019s who I was singing along with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As soon as her breakthrough single \u201cThe Way\u201d came out in 2013, Ariana had carved out her own lane, blending her technical prowess and four-octave range with the broad, yet razor-sharp knowledge of popular music that she\u2019d nurtured since childhood. The two factors, together, were unstoppable, and the big-name collaborators she worked with, from storied R&B producer Kenneth \u201cBabyface\u201d Edmonds to twenty-first-century hit machine Max Martin, took notice instantly. \u201cWhat makes an Ariana song an Ariana song is that it\u2019s a song no one else can sing,\u201d Savan Kotecha, who co-wrote Ariana\u2019s playful hit \u201cProblem,\u201d told Billboard in 2014. \u201cShe\u2019s probably one of, if not the best, technical singers of her generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALWAYS STAY CURIOUS<\/p>\n

In addition to having extraordinary vocal ability, Ariana also has a restless urge to experiment and a boundless curiosity. That hunger for the new, combined with her already-impressive musical knowledge, consistently leads her to anticipate and further current pop trends.\u201cBreak Free,\u201d from 2014\u2019s My Everything, was a neon-lit collaboration with the EDM producer Zedd that showed that Ari could command a modern-day dance floor. \u201cDangerous Woman,\u201d the title track of her third album, transported the storm and pomp of a James Bond theme to the twenty-first century; that same 2016 full-length album also included \u201cSide to Side,\u201d a reggae-tinged team-up with red-hot Queens MC Nicki Minaj. <\/p>\n

\"arianaKevin Mazur\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ariana Grande during the \u2019Dangerous Woman\u2019 tour in 2017.<\/p>\n

Over time, Ariana took more control in the studio as well as her material. On 2018\u2019s Sweetener, she told podcaster Zach Sang, she mostly kept her vocal range in what she called \u201cmy sweet lower register,\u201d and also figured out how to make her vocals fit together in ways that showcased her ad-libs and vocal runs while giving the music sonic depth. \u201cI did four million harmonies on everything,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s my favorite thing to do, is [to] vocal arrange.\u201d In recent years, she\u2019s released footage of herself in the studio to let fans in on her songs\u2019 progress and to allow them to watch her figure out how each track of her voice can dart through the music and itself for maximum impact: She typically records multiple takes of a single line, then \u201cstacks\u201d them on the finished product.<\/p>\n

BUT THAT VOICE!<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to be very discerning with the ways I use my voice,\u201d Ariana told Fresh Air in 2025. \u201cI try to find the right places and moments and make sure that it\u2019s with an emotional attachment or serving a purpose.\u201d Ariana was talking about employing her whistle register, the high-soprano range that she\u2019s used to great effect on songs like the slow-dancing trap-pop cut \u201cImagine\u201d or the holly-jolly remix of whistle-note queen Mariah Carey\u2019s holiday jingle \u201cOh Santa!\u201d
<\/p>\n

The discography she\u2019s amassed since 2013 feels both whole and compact, its flights of fancy to different genres and styles all remaining true to Ariana\u2019s vision while spinning in unexpected directions.<\/p>\n

\"arianaNoam Galai\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ariana Grande and Mariah Carey at the 2025 VMAs.<\/p>\n

STAYING TRUE TO HER ROOTS<\/p>\n

Even though she\u2019s expanded her musical world into many genres, Ariana still feels a strong pull toward R&B. Eternal Sunshine in 2024 included \u201cThe Boy Is Mine,\u201d which combines feather-light sonics with Ariana\u2019s yearning voice and a stop-starting beat that heightens the dramatic tension of her attempts to reel in a potential lover. Before the album dropped, she told Apple Music\u2019s Zane Lowe that she\u2019d been inspired by soul singers Brandy and Monica\u2019s 1998 duet of the same name, a blockbuster crossover hit by two young up-and-comers that defined late-nineties pop-R&B. <\/p>\n

\u201cI always wanted to reimagine that song in some kind of way,\u201d she said. A few months after Eternal Sunshine dropped, Ariana announced a \u201cBoy\u201d remix\u2014one featuring none other than Brandy and Monica. \u201cThis is in celebration of you both and the impact that you have had on every vocalist, vocal producer, musician, artist that is creating today,\u201d Ariana wrote on Instagram when announcing the remix.<\/p>\n

ARIANA KEEPS REACHING<\/p>\n

Ariana\u2019s vision for her music has evolved over the years, but her central goals have rarely wavered\u2014she\u2019s wanted to honor her natural talent and the artists who inspired her to embark on her own journey while exploring new creative frontiers. When she was a teenage singer hoping to break through with an R&B album, music executives said she had set a \u201chelluva goal\u201d for herself. Less than two decades later, she has not only reached and surpassed those goals, demolishing any expectations placed along the way; she\u2019s shown that\u2014like her voice\u2014she\u2019s always reaching ever-higher heights. <\/p>\n

Ariana Grande: The Rise of a Dangerous Woman by Joel Calfee, Katie Connor, Maura Johnston, and Lisa Whittington-Hill will be released by Hearst Home Books on October 7, 2025. To preorder the book, click on the retailer of your choice:<\/p>\n

AMAZON<\/a> TARGET<\/a> BARNES & NOBLE<\/a> BOOKS-A-MILLION<\/a> POWELL’S<\/a>
<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Hearst Magazines is the parent company of Hearst Home Books and Cosmopolitan.
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