page_title: Thank U, Next
section_title: Songs
hierarchical_section_title: Thank U, Next / Music and lyrics / Songs
caption_attribution_description: Shangela Laquifa Wadley at RuPaul's DragCon LA 2018
context_page_description: Thank U, Next is the fifth studio album by American singer Ariana Grande, released on February 8, 2019, by Republic Records. It was released six months after her fourth studio album Sweetener, created in the midst of Grande's personal struggles, including the death of ex-boyfriend Mac Miller and her separation from then-fiancé Pete Davidson. Grande began working on the album in October 2018, enlisting writers and producers such as Tommy Brown, Max Martin, Ilya Salmanzadeh and Andrew "Pop" Wansel. Musically, Thank U, Next is primarily a pop record with trap and R&B elements.
  Thank U, Next was preceded by two singles, the title track and "7 Rings", with both debuting atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming Grande's first and second number one singles in the United States, respectively. "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" became the third single on the day of the album release, peaking at number two on the Hot 100. The album peaked at the top spot in many countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US.
context_section_description: The album begins with the song "Imagine", an R&B ballad with a trap-inspired rhythm. The song features multiple whistle notes, and its lyrics speak about Grande's denial of failed relationships, specifically her relationship with Mac Miller. Mathew Rodriguez from Out mentioned that the song "does the double duty of being both a great song and a great introduction." The next track "Needy" is a mid-tempo minimalistic song with a metronome-like synth in the foreground. Its lyrics are about Grande's insecurities in relationships. "NASA," named after the U.S. space agency of the same name, is a "bouncy-R&B tune." The track features a spoken introduction by Shangela, an American drag queen. She says, "One small step for woman, one giant leap for womankind", a variation on Neil Armstrong's quote, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Carolyn Bernucca of Complex said, "The standout track, 'NASA,' is punctuated by thumping bass and trap drums that have made their way from Atlanta all the way into mainstream pop." The fourth track is "Bloodline." It is a reggae-pop song with R&B influences that contains brassy horns and a pounding bass. It has been compared to Grande's 2016 single "Side to Side" and "Greedy" from her third studio album, Dangerous Woman. The song features a sound bite from Marjorie Grande, Grande's grandmother, in which she is talking about a hearing aid. The Guardian wrote that the song "posits the idea that maybe it’s best to just see how things go relationship-wise and getting engaged after a few months isn’t essential", believing that this song is about Pete Davidson.
  The fifth track of the record is "Fake Smile", a hip hop soul-inspired track with a trap groove. Lyrically, the song is about the attack on her concert in Manchester and the death of ex-boyfriend Mac Miller, and the emotional toll that these events inflicted upon her. Chloe Crookshanks from Medium stated that the song is "Weaved in with some funky muted bass, she states candidly her understandable disdain for putting on a show ('fuck a fake smile')". "Bad Idea" is an EDM and trap number, beginning with an 80's rock-ballad intro that garnered comparison to David Guetta's 2012 hit single "Titanium" featuring Sia. With an orchestra throughout the bridge and outro, its lyrics are about Grande's desire to numb her pain. The seventh track "Make Up" is Grande's most sexually explicit song on the album, featuring many double entendres. It is a trap record with wonky pop and bubblegum influences and it contains a "rap-influenced bridge". A Bit Of Pop Music wrote, "she wants to fight with her partner only so they can make up later, while also wanting him to ruin her make up." "Ghostin", the eighth track, is an emotional synth-and-strings ballad. Lyrically, it discusses Grande's last two relationships, stating that "she should ghost the guy that still makes her cry and wants to stop hurting the person she is with now while he is being patient with her," being Miller and Davidson. Savan Kotecha, who co-wrote the song with Grande, told Rolling Stone of working on the track: "[When we were writing] 'Ghostin,' we were in New York... The song speaks for itself in terms of what it's about. We were with her for a week in New York witnessing that, witnessing her feelings on that." NME stated that it was "One of the record’s most talked-about tracks" and also "one of the album’s most devastating moments." According to Grande, she "begged" her manager, Scooter Braun, to remove the track from the album, but he convinced her to keep it.
  The ninth track "In My Head" begins with an excerpt of a voicemail from by Grande's close friend Doug Middlebrook. It is a trap-pop hybrid with many R&B influences. Medium said that "Grande addresses her failure to see people for who they truly are." "7 Rings," the tenth track, is a trap-pop and R&B song. It features a heavy bass and sees Grande discuss "how global success has allowed her to enjoy the finer things". Billboard magazine noted it's "the most hip-hop-leaning song Grande has released in the post-Sweet
caption: Shangela Laquifa Wadley, mononymously addressed as Shangela (pictured in 2018) has an uncredited feature on the third track "NASA".
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 40D", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.4 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2018:05:13 20:58:43", "Image ExifOffset": "206", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "800", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "24683", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2018:05:13 12:44:33", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2018:05:13 12:44:33", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "5906891/1000000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "331919/62500", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "33/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "35", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "36", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "36", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "324000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2592000/583", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "1220717999", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 200, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF-S18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS"}