Following the bombing at her concert at Manchester Arena during her Dangerous Woman Tour in May 2017, Ariana Grande became reluctant to record new music, preferring to spend time with her loved ones because of the emotional impact the tour had on her. "No Tears Left to Cry" was the first song Grande wrote with Max Martin, Ilya and Savan Kotecha for "Sweetener", after working with Pharrell Williams for most of the album. She wanted her first single since the bombing to be hopeful and touch on the incident, but not dwell on it. The song came about when Grande said, "I want it to be positive and talk about positivity and love. I don't have any tears left to cry." Martin then sang the chorus melody. They composed the music before writing the lyrics.