Ariana Grande Debuts Song About Exes Pete Davidson And Mac Miller On ‘Ellen’
Ariana Grande has recently dropped her new single “Thank U, Next,” which addresses a few of her previous relationships, including her whirlwind romance with Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson and the late rapper Mac Miller. And on Wednesday, the pop princess stopped by the Ellen DeGeneres Show to perform the hit tune to a live audience for the first time.
Both Ariana and Ellen shared a sneak peek of the performance on their Instagram pages on Tuesday. The 25-year-old pop star captioned the clip, “thank u, next. tomorrow @theellenshow @victoriamonet @taylaparx,” tagging her two best friends and fellow singers Victoria Monet and Tayla Parx, who stood by Ariana and performed the back vocals to the catchy single.
The three looked stunning in white ensembles, with Ari donning a white dress with lace details and a blazer-style top, which she paired with thigh-high white boots. The Florida native wore her long brunette locks styled into her signature high ponytail while leaving some tresses loose.
Their white outfits and the white stage decorations were, of course, intentional, as there’s even a massive cake behind them. Ari shared a picture on Instagram of the three of them ahead of the performance, which she captioned “first wives club 2018…” referring to the movie The First Wives Club. The film starred Dianne Keaton, Goldie Hawn, and Bette Midler, who also got tagged in the pop star’s picture, too. The First Wives Club is about the three women seeking revenge of their exes while investing in their relationships with each other, and the final scene also shows Keaton, Hawn, and Midler singing dressed in all white at a wedding venue.
Despite Ariana’s obvious reference and the title of her new single, “Thank U, Next” is actually about her being thankful for the life lessons she learned from her previous relationships. She named four of her exes — Big Sean, Ricky Alvarez, Mac Miller, and Pete Davidson — in the song, and Ari herself called it “far from a diss track,” saying it was “the opposite.”
She sings, “Thought I’d end up with Sean, but it wasn’t a match / Wrote some songs about Ricky, now I listen and laugh / Even almost got married, and for Pete I’m so thankful / Wish I could say ‘thank you’ to Malcolm, cause he was an angel.”
Ariana and Pete broke off their engagement mid-October after being together for five months. Their relationship allegedly suffered a huge blow following the death of rapper Mac Miller, who died of a drug overdose in September at the young age of 26, and who Ariana dated for almost two years.
