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Ariana Grande Sets New Billboard Record With ‘Focus’

By Dustin Murrell
Published on: 10:33 PST, Nov 15, 2015

Ariana Grande’s latest single “Focus” debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making her the only singer to have the first single released from each of her first three albums debut on that chart’s Top 10.

As Refinery29 recalled, Grande debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2013 with the single “The Way” (featuring Mac Miller) off of her first album, Yours Truly at No. 10. The next year, she released “Problem” (featuring Iggy Azalea) off of her second album My Everything, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Focus” is the first single released from Grande’s upcoming album, Moonlight.

Billboard noted more than just Grande’s “unprecedented Hot 100 feat.” There are a lot of charts that Ariana’s “Focus” made its way onto. It landed at No. 5 on Digital Songs, No. 8 on Streaming Songs, and No. 38 on Radio Songs. This is the sixth Ariana Grande song to be featured on the Hot 100 top 10 spots. Along with the aforementioned “Problem,” the album My Everything contained three more songs that would crack this top 10. Those songs include “Break Free” (featuring Zedd) at No. 4, “Bang Bang” (featuring Jessie J and Nicki Minaj) at No. 3, and “Love Me Harder” (with The Weeknd) at No. 7. This would be Ariana’s first Hot 100 top 10 that didn’t feature any other artists (although Jamie Foxx provides vocals that remain uncredited).

It’s no surprise that the song debuted so highly. The official VEVO video is currently at more than 83 million plays. As Antimusic reported, Ariana’s “Focus” video was directed by Hanna Lux Davis, who Grande also worked with for the “Love Me Harder” and “Bang Bang” music videos.

The pop star also made news recently when legendary classical tenor Andrea Bocelli collaborated with Ariana Grande on one Italian song from his most recent release, Cinema. He decided to do the thematic album after realizing that so many of the songs he liked as a child came directly from the silver screen. Aside from her obvious talent, Bocelli specifically wanted to work with Grande because she was a favorite of Bocelli’s children. By this loose connection, Ariana Grande is also affiliated with an album that debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s classical music charts.

In an effort to further promote the album, Ariana Grande will perform at the American Music Awards, and “Focus” will obviously be a part of that. Not surprisingly, this will be the third consecutive year that Grande has been awarded the honor of performing at the AMAs. When she performed in 2013, she left the event with the “Best New Artist” award. Last year, Grande’s performances stole the show, as she did “Bang, Bang” with Jessie J and Nicki Minaj. She also performed a medley of her own songs — “Problem,” “Break Free,” and “Love Me Harder” — with some help from her friend, The Weeknd.

At this year’s American Music Awards, Grande is being nominated for “Artist of the Year” and “Favorite Female Artist – Pop/Rock.” Other performers announced for the show include Coldplay, One Direction, Demi Lovato, and Selena Gomez. You can see Grande perform “Focus” at the AMAs — hosted by Jennifer Lopez — on November 22.

[Image via Twitter]

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