Ariana Grande appeared on the Zach Sang Show last weekend, where she ultimately spilled some tea about her record-breaking track ‘Thank U, Next’ and, simultaneously, her tumultuous relationship with ex-fiance Pete Davidson.
Grande first revealed that she was hesitant with listing off her exes names on the track, explaining that “I’m super shy when it comes to pitching wild things. So I was like, ‘Is it insane if I name people and thank them directly in the song?’ And Tayla [one of Ariana’s friends and co-writers] was like, ‘Bitch, it’s gonna be a thing if you do, but I think it’s brilliant and it’s special, and yes — do it.”
“It was hard to play for people,” she elaborated. “I knew that as soon as people heard the names they’d be like, ‘What the f**k is she doing?'”
But in a more interesting revelation, the singer shared that “Thank U, Next”—Grande’s first Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 and one of the hottest tracks of 2018—has three separate versions.
“In my relationship at the time, things were like up and down and on and off, and so I didn’t know what was going to happen and then we got back together,” Grande explained. “So I had to make a different version of it, and then we broke up again, so we ended up going with that verse.”
One of the scenarios included marrying Davidson, one accounted for a breakup with Davidson, and the final one was “nothing,” meaning she didn’t name names.
“There’s a version where I was getting married, there’s a version where I’m not getting married, there’s a version with nothing—we’re not talking about anything. …But we all knew that the first version was gonna be the version we ultimately went with,” she said.
Grande also revealed that she’d gotten Big Sean and Ricky Alvarez’s approval on the final version of the track, but when asked about Davidson she merely replied: “The people I’m in touch with liked it.”
Watch the full interview below:
h/t Rolling Stone