Ariana Grande

“She has such a clear vision about what she wants to do and how to do it.”—Cynthia Erivo to Vanity Fair, September 30, 2024 If there’s one truth about Ariana Grande, it’s that she refuses to rest on her laurels. Born on June 26, 1993, Ariana is a magnetic presence whose clear talent is made even more potent by her overwhelming charisma—although, as she told The Hollywood Reporter in a 2025 cover story, she’ll also be the first to tell you that she’s just “a girl from Boca who loves art.” That’s underselling it a bit. Ariana has one of the most impressive voices in 21st-century pop, a lithe soprano that can travel high up the musical scale and invites comparisons to other one-named divas like Mariah and Céline. A…

FROM FLORIDA TO BROADWAY TO HOLLYWOOD, Ariana Grande-Butera makes a name for herself. Music ran throughout the Grande family. Ariana told NPR’s Fresh Air in 2025 that the house she grew up in had a karaoke machine in the living room, and she’d often spend after-school hours singing along with it with her family. Her father, Edward Butera, a graphic designer, was “super into the Beatles,” Ariana recalled in the NPR interview, while her mother, Joan Grande, who runs her family’s marine communications business, was into the divas—Céline Dion, Barbara Streisand. Her half-brother, Frankie, whose father is physician Victor Marchione, had tastes that ranged from Madonna to Judy Garland. Even her maternal grandparents, fellow Boca residents Marjorie and Frank Grande, sang, with Frank belting out the likes of Dean Martin…

Years before she was cast in the Wicked films, Ariana had a strong connection to Oz. As a child it was one of her favorite musicals, and she has described her life as two chapters: before seeing Wicked and after. When Ariana was 10, Nonna took her to New York City to see Wicked on Broadway for the first time. After the show she met Kristin Chenoweth, who originated the role of Glinda—and, as Chenoweth recalled on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2022, “[Ariana] said, ‘I want to be you.’” Nonna Marjorie told Ariana to sing for her idol. “[Ariana] doesn’t remember this,” said Chenoweth, “but I remember everything—steel-trap mind. She sang a little something. And I said, ‘You have to have something of mine! You’re just so…

In 2010, Ariana crossed paths with superstar Justin Bieber at Variety’s 4th Annual Power of Youth Event (pictured above). The next year, the mop-topped Canadian heartthrob visited the set of Victorious, answering questions posed to him by the cast during Nickelodeon’s “Crush Week.” Ariana asked: “What inspires your music more—being happy in love, or heartbreak?” That question sparked a lively discussion about songwriting and kicked off a fruitful creative partnership between the two. When Ari covered his Believe cut “Die in Your Arms” in 2012, mashing it up with Fergie’s “Clumsy,” Bieber tweeted, “WOW . . . u killed it.” The next year, Bieber had Ariana open a few dates of his Believe Tour, and two years later he joined Ariana onstage during her Honeymoon Tour’s Miami stop, singing his…

ALREADY A TEEN STAR, Ariana becomes a dual threat with the release of Yours Truly. In November 2012, Nickelodeon had announced that it was expanding the Victorious universe with Sam & Cat, a spinoff featuring Ariana and Jennette McCurdy, who’d played wisecracking tomboy Sam Puckett on the Nick sitcom iCarly. On the show, Cat moves to Los Angeles and is rescued by Sam after being thrown into the back of a garbage truck. That high-stakes encounter leads to the two becoming fast friends and, eventually, roommates. Sam & Cat proved that Nickelodeon had come into its own as a kids’ entertainment powerhouse. “I don’t think they’ve ever taken two characters from two different shows!” Ariana said in a 2013 joint interview with McCurdy for Teen Vogue while talking about Sam…

After ditching the red-velvet ’do she sported as the kooky Cat Valentine, Ariana became known for her signature ponytail, a high and tight sweep of her locks that changes angles and hues based on her mood and her hair’s health. (Ari has been open about how her hairstyles have taken a toll on her locks over the years.) The ponytail made its debut in 2013 as a curly, half-up, half-down style. Over the next few years, her hair gradually lightened and was styled in a more fully pulledup look. During the Dangerous Woman era, she added bangs to the signature style. At the 2018 Met Gala, she dressed it up with a huge, floppy bow that resembled a nun’s headdress—perfectly aligning with the theme, “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic…