Moonlight (Album)

> *„I felt like, with ‚Yours Truly‘ I really got to set my mark and show people what I love and what I‘m all about as an artist. But with ‚Moonlight‘, I really wanted to fully step into the world of pop music and still keep my soulful, romantic undertones and I‘m very proud of how it all sort of fell into place“.*
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Moonlight is Ariana Grande‘s second studio album. It was released on March 1st 2015 through Republic Records.

## Background

On January 1st 2015 Grande twittered „happy new year babes🎙💜…….exiting stuff coming soon“. She later took to Instagram posting a photo of her in the studio captioned „sweet like candy…….but he‘s such a maaan 💭☕️🤎”. Leading fans to speculate about the release of her sophomore album. Theories were made on Twitter, including fans thinking the album was going to be called “Sweet Like Candy” and Grande dying her hair lavender for the era.

She continued posting snippets of tracks on Twitter and Instagram Stories, including the beginning instrumental of One Last Time with added harmonies, a part of Big Sean‘s verse on Best Mistake and the outro of My Everything.

## Promotion

On Febuary 3rd, the first single „Moonlight“ was released with a romantic black and white music video featuring Grande going on a sweet date and singing with a vintage microphone under the moon.

Then, a week and a half later on February 13th, the second single „Into You“ was released, becoming Grande‘s first Billboard Hot 100 Number 1 single. It was referred to by Rolling Stone as „The Pop Song”.

The third and final single of the album, „Dangerous Woman“, was released another week and a half later on Febuary 23rd. It was promoted through an acapella video and two music videos, the first featuring Grande in black lace lingerie and long open hair. In the second visual released a day later she was seen in an erotic black bunny costume breaking out a cage and savagely walking away from a herd of screaming men.

Lastly, „Let Me Love You“ was released as a promo single on Febuary 27th through a simple video of Grande and Wayne. The video was the first time she publically showed her natural curly brown locks wich was met with positive reviews. Several arianators took to Twitter stating Grande made them feel pretty in their own skin. The promo single was the first one to be released through physical copies only, via CD, Casette and Vinyl. Even though to not being featured on streaming services the track stayed in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 4 consecutive weeks, selling over 100 thousand copies first week.

The album was then released on March 1st, debuting and peaking at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 200. It gained a lot of positive reviews and was very critically acclaimed. Rolling Stone stated „Moonlight by Ariana Grande marks the singers transition from aspiring vocalist to pop-star. The album is polished pop perfection with utterly fluffy and romantic undertones“.

Throughout the release week, Grande kept in contact with her fans via Twitter, answering several questions about the album.

One fan asked her what her top 3 on the album were, to wich she answered „this question seems impossible to answer, every single one of these songs mean so so very much to me and complete the picture………but if u askin‘ me which one‘s mean the very most to me i would have to say…………moonlight, dw and my everything………..“. Another tweeted Grande saying „tell us ab the album title“ to wich she replied „oof okay…..so basically i started recording way earlier in 2014 and it was supposed to be called ‚my everything‘ but then so many more incredible songs came along n we were all like ‚aight we‘ll have to wait anotha minute‘..so then i was debating between ‚moonlight‘ and ‚dangerous woman‘ so much, it hurt - - however moonlight captures the heart of the album so much better and feels more natural to me at the moment 💜💭“.

## Tour

Grande started the tour in promotion for the album, titled „The Honeymoon Tour“ in late spring of 2015. She performed the whole of both her albums, kicking off the setlist with „Honeymoon Avenue“ and ending it with „My Everything“. The show did not feature many flashing lights, smoke or loud noise, since Grande wanted it to feel enjoyable and fun for everybody. It was very poppy with elements of R&B and old jazz and soul.

## Track List

1. Moonlight
2. Dangerous Woman
3. Let Me Love You ft. Lil Wayne
4. Why Try?
5. Into You
6. One Last Time
7. Best Mistake ft. Big Sean
8. Be My Baby ft. Cashmere Cat
9. Knew Better/Forever Boy
10. Love Me Harder ft. The Weekend
11. My Everything