Thank U, Next (album)

For other articles with the same name, see Thank U, Next.

## ***Thank U, Next***Studio album by Y/N

* Standard
* Physical

### Producers

Ariana Grande (exec.), Y/N (exec.), Scooter Braun (exec.), Charles Anderson, Brian Baptiste, Tommy Brown, Michael Foster, Ilya, Max Martin, NOVA Wav, Happy Perez, Pop Wansel

## Singles

1. "Thank U, Next"
Released: November 3, 2018
2. "Imagine" (*promotional*)
Released: December 14, 2018
3. "7 Rings"
Released: January 18, 2019
4. "Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored"
Released: February 8, 2019

***Thank U, Next*** (stylized all in lowercase, commonly abbreviated as "**TUN**") is Y/N’s first studio album and Ariana Grande's fifth studio album. It was released on February 8, 2019, through Republic Records and Dream Records.

Three singles were released from the album, two of which debuted at number one on the US *Billboard* Hot 100. With this, *Thank U, Next* joined *Daydream* by Mariah Carey as the only albums by female artists to have multiple songs debut at number one. Y/N and Grande also joined Carey and Britney Spears as the only female artists with multiple number-one debuts; overall she is the fifth artist after Justin Bieber and Drake. Topping charts in many countries internationally, the song broke numerous streaming records, including the record for the most streams received by a song in a single day for two female artists on Spotify, and the largest on-demand streaming week ever recorded for a female artists in the US.

## Background

During the *Sweetener* livestream on August 16, 2018, Grande and Y/N confirmed that they would start working on their next album in September 2018. Tommy Brown shared a short snippet of a song on his Instagram story on October 4, 2018. Later that day, Y/N shared a 45-second-snippet of a song on her Instagram with the caption "tell me how good it feels to be needed" which are lyrics from a song, later revealed to be titled "Needy". On November 1, 2018, Grande revealed on Twitter that she was finishing the album, but she later deleted the tweet. On November 3, 2018, Y/N and Grande confirmed the title of the album, *Thank U, Next*.

A music video for Grande's single "Breathin", from her previous album *Sweetener*, was released on November 7, 2018. In the video, a short scene shows a departures board, where some possible tracks from *Thank U, Next* are listed, including "NASA", "Imagine" and "Needy". Also, another short scene shows the board in the background blurred. The song titles "Make Up", "7 Rings", "Ghostin" and "Remember" could be seen.

On December 4, 2018, Y/N revealed on Twitter that the album was finished. In an interview with *Billboard*, the album was described as "deep, bass-driven bangers with trap beats alternating with airy, sad ballads". On January 3, 2019, Grande and Y/N confirmed on Twitter that "7 Rings" would be the second single from the album. The album was made available for pre-order on January 25, 2019.

It was revealed on Y/N's official Japanese Twitter account that a Deluxe Edition of the album would be released on June 26, Ariana's birthday, featuring the "7 Rings" remix featuring 2 Chainz, "Monopoly" with Victoria Monét, and a DVD with the music videos for "Thank U, Next", "7 Rings" and "Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored".

### Recording

On October 1, 2018, Grande annd Y/N uploaded a photo at studio on both of their Instagram story. A day later, they uploaded more photos and revealed that at least nine songs were recorded, tagging songwriters and producers Kaydence, Victoria Monét, Tayla Parx, Tommy Brown, Scootie and Mikey (from Social House).

The following is a list of known dates on which Grande and Y/N was in the studio:

* October 1-12, 2018
* October 19-20, 2018
* October 22, 2018
* October 23, 2018
* October 24, 2018
* October 25, 2018
* October 26, 2018
* October 29, 2018
* October 30, 2018
* November 1-8, 2018
* November 9, 2018
* November 11, 2018
* November 27-29, 2018
* December 4, 2018
* December 5, 2018
* December 14, 2018

### Promotional singles

A promotional single, "Imagine", was released on December 14, 2018.

Thank U, Next7 RingsBreak Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored
### Promotional singles

A promotional single, "Imagine", was released on December 14, 2018.

Imagine
## Tour

Main article: Sweetener World Tour
Grande confirmed that the tour for her album *Sweetener* would be combined with the tour for *Thank U, Next*. She also confirmed that Y/N was going on tour with her. The dates for the North American leg of the Sweetener World Tour were announced on October 25, 2018. The tour began on March 18, 2019, in Albany, New York and ended on December 22, 2019, in Inglewood, California.

## Critical reception

The album received universal acclaim from music critics. AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine made an early review of the album. He noted the difference between *Thank U, Next* with Grande's previous album *Sweetener* saying that "this time Grande is swaggering with the confidence that comes with unquestioned stardom." He added that "the album feels slighter than *Sweetener*." Erlewine gave the album 4.5 out of 5 stars. Sal Cinquemani, writing on behalf of *Slant Magazine*, gave the album 3.5 out of 5 stars and stated that *Thank U, Next* is "easily Grande’s most sonically consistent effort to date, even if that means some of the album’s sleek R&B tracks tend to blur together."

## Commercial performance

After the release of *Thank U, Next*, it reached the top on US iTunes in just 5 minutes, becoming the fastest album in history to hit #1 on US iTunes.

The album debuted at number 1 on the US *Billboard* 200 with 360,000 album-equivalent units being Grande's fourth number-one album in the United States and Y/N’s first album in the United States. It broke the record for the largest streaming week for a pop album. All twelve songs from the album appeared simultaneously on the *Billboard* Hot 100 in the week ending February 23, 2019, and eleven of the tracks appeared in the top 40 of the chart. With this, Grande and Y/N broke the record for the most simultaneous top 40 songs by a female artists.

The album also broke yet another record of occupying the top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, a record that was held by The Beatles for the last 55 years.

## Trivia

* This is Grande's and Y/N’s first album in which she co-wrote every track.
* The first song written for the album was "Ghostin".
* The last song recorded for the album was "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored".
* The longest song is "Ghostin", at 4 minutes and 31 seconds, while the shortest song is "Make Up" at 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
* Grande released a fragrance with the Thank U, Next by Ariana Grande as the album. It is Grande's only album to have a fragrance named after it so far.
* "Ghostin" is the only song on the album that has never been performed live.
	+ "Imagine" has been performed live, though it was not part of the Sweetener World Tour setlist at any moment during the tour's duration.
* A scrapped song, "Remember," was originally intended to be the the album closer. Later, it was replaced by "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored"
* Various samples of other songs are used throughout the album, including:
	+ "After Laughter (Comes Tears)" by Wendy Rene (Fake Smile)
	+ "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music (7 Rings)
	+ "It Makes Me Ill" by \*NSYNC (Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored)
* It's often speculated that there was going to be a deluxe edition / re-release of the album at some point, but that it was eventually scrapped by her team due to timing, most likely because of the Sweetener World Tour and the decision to release an accompanying live album. Whether this is true or not is unknown, though some leaked songs that were recorded after the album's release through late-2019 sound as though they were made for some kind of extension of this album. Some of those songs include: "Like That", "Don't Waste My Time", and "Monopoly" with the latter seeing an official single release.

## Gallery

VinylTarget Edition VinylCDCD discCassetteOfficial Tracklist

### Teaser

Ariana Grande - thank u, next (official album teaser)
## Track listing

Y/N, Grande, Monét, Parx, Vitia, Krysiuk, Brown, Foster, Anderson, Rodgers, Hammerstein II, Wallace, Harvey, Winley, Winley, Mayfield, Brown, Noland, Napier, Satchell, Webster, Williams, Bonner, Jones, Pierce, Middlebrooks, Morrison, Scruggs, Jones, Taylor, Fletcher, Parker, James, Woods, Wheeler, Gorrie, Irvine, Rooney, Elam, Martin, Perrey, Perreault, Badale, Mays, Barnes, Allen, Brown, Dickerson, Jordan, Miller, Oskar, Scott, Clinton, Shider, Worrell, Hammond, Beckford, Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Smith, Higgins, Jackson, Scott, Hall, McDuff, Hendrix, Bayyan, Brown, Bell, West, Smith, Mickens, Thomas, Redd, Porter, Gamble, Huff, Jackson, Belle, Riley, Tauheed Epps

### Cut tracks

* “Close Friends”
* "Confused"
* "Could Be Us"
* "Don't Waste My Time"
* "Indica"
* "Italiano"
* "Juice"
* "Like That"
* "Not Ok"
* "Remember"
* "What Would You"

## Navigation

 Released