ARIANA GRANDE SAT down with Ebro Darden to talk about her new album ‘Sweetener’ this week.
Mental health is a prevalent theme on the new album, with a particular focus on Grande’s own journey with anxiety.
Darden asked her about the album’s final track, ‘get well soon’, which pays tribute to the victims of the Manchester attack by coming in at five minutes 22 seconds to coincide with the date of the incident. (Twenty two people were killed in a terrorist attack following her concert in Manchester, England in 2017.)
https://open.spotify.com/track/2qT1uLXPVPzGgFOx4jtEuo
Grande was overcome with emotion — crying over the pain she carries in the wake of attack.
“It’s just about being there for each other and helping each other through scary times and anxiety,” Grande said of the song.
You know, there’s some dark s**t out there, man. And we just have to be there for each other as much as we can. Because you never f***ing know, you know. So I wanted to do something to make people feel good and less alone.”
She apologised throughout the interview for getting emotional, before continuing:
“It’s not just about that. It’s also about personal demons and anxiety and more intimate tragedies as well. Mental health is so important. People don’t pay enough mind to it because we have things to do. We have schedules, jobs, kids, places to be, pressures to fit in, Instagram Stories — whatever the f**k facade you’re trying to put on, trying to keep up. People don’t pay attention to what’s happening inside. That’s why I felt it was important.”
On ‘Get Well Soon’, Grande sings to fans about taking care of themselves and removing negativity from their lives.
“This is for everybody / Babe, you gotta take care of you body, yuh yuh,” she sings. “Ain’t no time to deny it, that is why we talking about it / So deal with it, don’t try to get by it.”
After the concert, Grande made the tough decision to finish her European tour. “That’s the point of finishing my tour: to [show] an example for my fans who were fearless enough to show up to the f—ing shows,” she said.
You want to keep going. You want to not be afraid because of course, if you give them that, they’ve won.”
“We did everything to not. And we still do everything to not. But the truth is, it’s scary,” Grande added.
Going anywhere, and you look at places differently. I don’t like to have security come with me everywhere. It makes me feel inhuman. It makes me feel weird. I know people just try to take care of me, but I want to escape with my friends and run around and be free.
But you think about it differently when s**t like that happens. I don’t want to have metal detectors at my shows, I don’t want to have people taking tiny ass bag into my shows. But you better bring a tiny ass bag into my shows! You don’t want to give in and you don’t want to be afraid but it’s still there.”
In more positive news for the star, she’s broken a Spotify streaming record with the new LP – she now holds the US Spotify record for the biggest opening day for a female artist, according to Chart Data.
Sweetener received 15.1 million album streams on August 17. This is her fourth studio album following 2013′s ‘Yours Truly’, 2014′s ‘My Everything’, and 2016′s ‘Dangerous Woman’.
You can watch a clip from the interview below, or by clicking here:
