When Ariana Grande 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 “Video” made her one of neo-soul’s premier singer-songwriters and whose music Ariana had discovered while mainlining music as a child. She told the managers she’d been working with, and they were incredulous at the then-fourteen-year-old’s moxie. “They were like, ‘Um, that’s a helluva goal!’” she told Billboard in 2014.

But Ariana’s whole career has been about setting “helluva goals” and surpassing them beyond anyone’s expectations—except, perhaps, her own. While those initial meetings as a young teen didn’t 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 Trulyshe’d gained enough autonomy over her music career to kick it off in a fashion that, she said, felt true to her.

MUSIC FROM THE START

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 Céline Dion, while her dad, Edward Buterawas more of a Beatles fan. Her older half-brother Frankie’s selections, meanwhile, were “a mix of everything,” 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.

Ariana found her own voice early on. Joan told People that Ariana belted out “one of JC [Chasez]’s power high notes” 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’s vocal power. Even at that age, Ariana was nonchalant about her talents. “She thought everybody sounded like that,” Joan said.

Ariana Grande and her mom Joan at the 2025 Golden Globes.

ARIANA DEVELOPS HER TALENT

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 “Hide and Seek” were beloved for their intricate construction and multilayered vocals.

Ariana’s range and power invited comparisons to Mariah Carey—a flattering resemblance because Carey was someone, Ariana told Fresh Airshe’d “looked up to… endlessly” alongside Whitney Houston and Dion. “I think that’s a large part of the reason why I learned to sing, because that’s who I was singing along with,” she said.

As soon as her breakthrough single “The Way” 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’d nurtured since childhood. The two factors, together, were unstoppable, and the big-name collaborators she worked with, from storied R&B producer Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds to twenty-first-century hit machine Max Martin, took notice instantly. “What makes an Ariana song an Ariana song is that it’s a song no one else can sing,” Savan Kotecha, who co-wrote Ariana’s playful hit “Problem,” told Billboard in 2014. “She’s probably one of, if not the best, technical singers of her generation.”

ALWAYS STAY CURIOUS

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.“Break Free,” from 2014’s My Everythingwas a neon-lit collaboration with the EDM producer Zedd that showed that Ari could command a modern-day dance floor. “Dangerous Woman,” 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 “Side to Side,” a reggae-tinged team-up with red-hot Queens MC Nicki Minaj.

Ariana Grande during the ’Dangerous Woman’ tour in 2017.

Over time, Ariana took more control in the studio as well as her material. On 2018’s Sweetenershe told podcaster Zach Sang, she mostly kept her vocal range in what she called “my sweet lower register,” 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. “I did four million harmonies on everything,” she said. “That’s my favorite thing to do, is [to] vocal arrange.” In recent years, she’s released footage of herself in the studio to let fans in on her songs’ 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 “stacks” them on the finished product.

BUT THAT VOICE!

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

The discography she’s amassed since 2013 feels both whole and compact, its flights of fancy to different genres and styles all remaining true to Ariana’s vision while spinning in unexpected directions.

Ariana Grande and Mariah Carey at the 2025 VMAs.

STAYING TRUE TO HER ROOTS

Even though she’s expanded her musical world into many genres, Ariana still feels a strong pull toward R&B. Eternal Sunshine in 2024 included “The Boy Is Mine,” which combines feather-light sonics with Ariana’s 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’s Zane Lowe that she’d been inspired by soul singers Brandy and Monica’s 1998 duet of the same name, a blockbuster crossover hit by two young up-and-comers that defined late-nineties pop-R&B.

“I always wanted to reimagine that song in some kind of way,” she said. A few months after Eternal Sunshine dropped, Ariana announced a “Boy” remix—one featuring none other than Brandy and Monica. “This is in celebration of you both and the impact that you have had on every vocalist, vocal producer, musician, artist that is creating today,” Ariana wrote on Instagram when announcing the remix.

ARIANA KEEPS REACHING

Ariana’s vision for her music has evolved over the years, but her central goals have rarely wavered—she’s 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 “helluva goal” for herself. Less than two decades later, she has not only reached and surpassed those goals, demolishing any expectations placed along the way; she’s shown that—like her voice—she’s always reaching ever-higher heights.

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:

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