Ariana Grande-Butera (born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. An influential contemporary popular music artist, and often regarded as a pop icon, she is noted for her four-octave vocal range and whistle register, which have garnered her critical acclaim. Grande has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including two Grammy Awards, one Brit Award, one Bambi Award, two Billboard Music Awards, three American Music Awards, nine MTV Video Music Awards, and 30 Guinness World Records.

Grande began her music career at age 15 in the 2008 Broadway musical 13. She rose to fame for playing Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon television series Victorious (2010–2013) and Sam & Cat (2013–2014). Grande signed with Republic Records in 2011 after label executives viewed YouTube videos of her covering songs. Her 1950s doo-wop-influenced pop and R&B debut album, Yours Truly (2013), topped the US Billboard 200, while its lead single, “The Way”, reached the top ten of the US Billboard Hot 100. Grande’s voice and vocal performances on the album drew immediate comparisons to Mariah Carey.

Grande continued to explore pop and R&B in her second and third studio albums, My Everything (2014) and Dangerous Woman (2016). My Everything experimented with EDM and achieved global success with its singles “Problem”, “Break Free” and “Bang Bang”, while Dangerous Woman became her first of four consecutive number-one albums in the UK. Personal struggles influenced her trap-infused fourth and fifth studio albums, Sweetener (2018) and Thank U, Next (2019), both of which were critical and commercial successes. Sweetener won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, and Thank U, Next broke the record for the largest streaming week for a pop album and was nominated for Album of the Year. The singles “Thank U, Next”, “7 Rings”, and “Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored” made Grande the first solo artist to hold the top three spots on the Hot 100 simultaneously and the first woman to succeed herself at the top of the UK Singles Chart. Her 2020 collaborations “Stuck with U” with Justin Bieber and “Rain on Me” with Lady Gaga helped her break the record for most number-one debuts on the Hot 100, the latter winning the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Grande expanded on the trap genre with her sixth studio album, Positions (2020), which both the album and its title track debuted at number one in the UK and the US. Her collaborations with The Weeknd on the remixes of “Save Your Tears” and “Die for You” garnered her sixth and seventh US number-one singles, respectively.

Grande is one of the world’s best-selling music artists; she has sold over 90 million records globally and all of her studio albums have been certified platinum or higher. She has also broken a variety of records on the Billboard chart, with her albums, songs and as an artist. Grande is the most streamed female artist of all time, the most streamed female artist of 2010s on Spotify and Apple Music, the most followed female artist on Spotify, and the most subscribed female solo artist on YouTube. Nine of Grande’s songs and seven of her music videos reached 1 billion streams and views on Spotify and Vevo, respectively. Grande has been included on Time’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world (2016 and 2019) and the Forbes Celebrity 100 (2019–2020). Grande was named Woman of the Year (2018), the greatest pop star of 2019, and the most successful female artist to debut in the 2010s by Billboard. Furthermore, Rolling Stone placed her in their list of 200 Greatest Singers of All Time (2023). Besides music, Grande has worked with many charitable organizations and advocates for animal rights, mental health, and gender, racial, and LGBT equality. Grande has also ventured into the cosmetics and fashion industries. Grande has a large following on social media; she became the most followed woman on Instagram in 2019 and has over 370 million followers as of 2023. Her fragrance line, which was released in 2015, exceeded $1 billion in sales through 2022.

Ariana Grande-Butera was born on June 26, 1993, in Boca Raton, Florida. She is the daughter of Joan Grande, the Brooklyn-born CEO of Hose-McCann Communications, a manufacturer of communications and safety equipment owned by the Grande family since 1964, and Edward Butera, a graphic design firm owner in Boca Raton. Grande is of Italian descent and has described herself as an Italian American with Sicilian and Abruzzese roots. She has an older half-brother, Frankie Grande, who is an entertainer and producer, Her family moved from New York to Florida before her birth, and her parents separated when she was eight or nine years old. Grande has a close relationship with her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Grande.

When her parents were Florida Panthers season ticket holders, she was accidentally hit on each wrist by errant hockey pucks on two different occasions in 1998, sustaining minor bruises both times. The second occurrence happened during the Panthers’ inaugural regular-season game at National Car Rental Center on October 9, 1998, in which she was also the first child to ever ride a Zamboni in the brand-new arena during the first intermission, the result of her parents’ $200 winning bid at an auction. A photograph of her on the Zamboni was featured in the South Florida SunSentinel the next day. At age 8, she sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Panthers’ home game against the Chicago Blackhawks on January 16, 2002.

As a young child, Grande performed with the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theater, playing her first role as the title character in the musical Annie. She also performed in their productions of The Wizard of Oz and Beauty and the Beast. At age eight, she performed at a karaoke lounge on a cruise ship and with various orchestras such as South Florida’s Philharmonic, Florida Sunshine Pops and Symphonic Orchestras. During this time, she attended the Pine Crest School and later North Broward Preparatory.

By age 13, Grande became serious about pursuing a music career, although she still concentrated on theater. When she first arrived in Los Angeles, California to meet with her managers, she expressed a desire to record an R&B album: “I was like, ‘I want to make an R&B album,’ They were like ‘Um, that’s a helluva goal! Who is going to buy a 14-year-old’s R&B album?!'” In 2008, Grande was cast as cheerleader Charlotte in the Broadway musical 13. When she joined the musical, Grande left North Broward Preparatory School, but continued to be enrolled; the school sent her materials to study with tutors. She also sang various times at the New York City jazz club Birdland.

Grande was cast in the Nickelodeon television show Victorious along with 13 co-star Elizabeth Gillies in 2009. In the sitcom, set at a performing arts high school, she played the “adorably dimwitted” Cat Valentine. She had to dye her hair red every other week for the role, which severely damaged her hair. The show premiered in March 2010 to the second-largest audience for a live-action series in Nickelodeon, with 5.7 million viewers. The role helped propel Grande to teen idol status, but she was more interested in a music career, saying that acting is “fun, but music has always been first and foremost with me.” Her character was compared to “Brittany Murphy’s performance as the hapless Tai in Clueless” and described as being “very impressionable and easily swayed” but “generally sweet”.

After the first season of Victorious wrapped, Grande wanted to focus on her music career and began working on her debut album in August 2010. To strengthen her vocal range, she began working with vocal coach Eric Vetro. The second season premiered in April 2011 to 6.2 million viewers, becoming the show’s highest-rated episode. In May 2011, Grande appeared in Greyson Chance’s video for the song “Unfriend You” from his album Hold On ’til the Night (2011), portraying his ex-girlfriend. She made her first musical appearance on the track “Give It Up” from the Victorious soundtrack in August 2011. While filming Victorious, Grande made several recordings of herself singing covers of songs by Adele, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, and uploaded them to YouTube. A friend of Monte Lipman, chief executive officer (CEO) of Republic Records, came across one of the videos. Impressed by her vocals, he sent the links to Lipman, who signed her to a recording contract. Grande voiced the title role in the English dub of the Spanish-language animated film Snowflake, the White Gorilla in November 2011. From 2011 to 2013, she voiced the fairy Princess Diaspro in the Nickelodeon revival of Winx Club.

In December 2011, Grande released her first single, “Put Your Hearts Up”, which was recorded for a potential teen-oriented pop album that was never issued. She later disowned the track for its bubblegum pop sound, saying she had no interest in recording music of that genre. The song was later certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). On a second soundtrack, Victorious 2.0, released on June 5, 2012, as an extended play, she supplied vocals as part of the show’s cast for the song “5 Fingaz to the Face”. The third and final soundtrack, Victorious 3.0, was released on November 6, 2012, which featured a duet by Grande and Victoria Justice titled “L.A. Boyz”, with an accompanying music video being released shortly after.[40] In December 2012, Grande collaborated on the single version of “Popular Song”, a duet with British singer and songwriter Mika.

After four seasons, Victorious was not renewed, with the finale airing in February 2013. Grande starred as Snow White in the pantomime-style musical theatre production A Snow White Christmas with Charlene Tilton and Neil Patrick Harris at the Pasadena Playhouse. She played Amanda Benson in Swindle, a 2013 Nickelodeon film adaptation of the children’s book of the same name. Meanwhile, Nickelodeon created Sam & Cat, an iCarly and Victorious spin-off starring Jennette McCurdy and Grande. Grande and McCurdy reprised their roles as Cat Valentine and Sam Puckett on the buddy sitcom, which paired the characters as roommates who form an after-school babysitting business. The pilot aired on June 8, 2013, and the network immediately picked up the show. The next month, Nickelodeon doubled Sam & Cat’s original 20-episode order for season one, making it a 40-episode season. Despite its success in the ratings, the series was canceled after 35 episodes. The final episode aired on July 17, 2014.