Ariana Grande Reclaimed Her Story Before Saturday Night Live Even Aired

Just before Saturday Night Live returned from its break, Ariana Grande released “thank u, next,” in which she name checks her ex-fiancee, Pete Davidson, but also three other ex-boyfriends, including Mac Miller, who died earlier this fall: “Thought I’d end up with [Big] Sean / But he wasn’t a match / Wrote some songs about Ricky [Alvrez, her former dancer] / Now I listen and laugh. Even almost got married / And for Pete I’m so thankful / Wish I could say thank you to Malcolm [Miller] / Cause he was an angel.” Then the chorus comes in: “Thank you, next. I’m so fucking grateful for my ex.” It’s a panacea of a break-up song that contextualizes each man as an era in Grande’s life—not the other way around. With a single release, the pop star, who rarely lets the narrative get away from her, signaled complete and total control of her story.

Although Grande explicitly tweeted that the song wasn’t intended to wound or one-up‚—“no drags.... no shade..... jus love, gratitude, acceptance, honesty, forgiveness ... and growth”—the accelerated timeline is brilliant in part because it reduces Davidson to a point on a timeline. It also makes us, the battle-hungry public, look petty for assigning a winner while Grande takes the high road. (By way of comparison, Taylor Swift tends to let conversation die down before she releases a revenge tune or four, a la Tom Hiddleston and Reputation. So too with her public spats: “Bad Blood” almost invented a feud with Katy Perry, and “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” came out long after the noise around her feud with Kanye West—and by extension Kim Kardashian—had crested.) The timing of Grande’s release—mere hours before S.N.L. returned—was as pointed as it could have possibly been, preempting any of Davidson’s hypothetical remarks. (For what it’s worth, TMZ reported that Davidson deliberately scrapped any Grande bits from Saturday’s show.)

Grande had good reason to believe she might become sketch fodder. When she and Davidson were living together, S.N.L. mined their engagement for comedy and propelled Davidson to more air time than he’d ever gotten prior, as Vanity Fair’s Joanna Robinson noted. And this past Thursday, S.N.L. hinted that it would certainly get up to its old tricks when it aired a promo in which Davidson proposed to musical guest Maggie Rogers. After Rogers said, “No,” he replied, “Well, zero for three.” This came after he had addressed the end of his relationship at a charity event with Judd Apatow. “Well, as you could tell, I don’t want to be here,” he said in late October, a week after the news broke. “There’s a lot going on. Does anybody have any open rooms? Looking for a roommate?” After the promo with Rogers was released, Grande tweeted and then deleted, “For somebody who claims to hate relevancy u sure love clinging to it huh,” which may have looked like the beginnings of a feud, if her very next tweet hadn’t been subtle self-promo: “thank u, next.”

In a way, Grande’s dominance over the narrative of her split was preordained. Davidson may make a living spinning tragedy into self-deprecating jokes, but Grande’s sincerity has always shone through as she speaks directly to her fans, and leaves them with something hopeful to hold onto. Davidson took a shot at a similar message, appearing on “Weekend Update” to read a prepared statement: “The last thing I will say is I know some of you are curious about the breakup, but the truth is it’s nobody’s business,” he said, adding, “Sometimes things just don’t work out, and that’s okay. She’s a wonderful, strong person, and I genuinely wish her all the happiness in the world. Now, please go vote on Tuesday.”

His message, it seems, was something akin to, our personal problems are nothing compared to the national problem at hand. But while Davidson uses political activism as a way to change the topic, Grande seems to be able to do it all: call off an engagement, mourn the death of a loved one, encourage her fanbase to vote, and release a new single that seamlessly re-writes her own narrative.

Let's block ads! (Why?)