Katana VentraIP

Dangerous Woman

Dangerous Woman is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Ariana Grande. It was released through Republic Records on May 20, 2016.[1] Grande began work on the album shortly after the release of her second studio album My Everything (2014). Grande served as the album's executive producer, alongside Max Martin and Savan Kotecha. Guest vocals on the album are provided by Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Macy Gray and Future.

This article is about the album. For the title track, see Dangerous Woman (song). For other uses, see Dangerous Woman (disambiguation).

Dangerous Woman

May 20, 2016 (2016-05-20)

August 2014 – January 2016

39:08 (Standard edition)
55:35 (Deluxe edition)

Republic

Lyrically, Dangerous Woman revolves around love, destructive relationships and rebelliousness. Primarily a pop and R&B record, the album incorporates dance, disco, house, trap, reggae and electropop. It received positive reviews from critics, many of whom praised Grande's vocal prowess, matured lyrical content and her adaptation to different musical styles. The album also appeared in numerous year-end lists of 2016. Dangerous Woman and its singles were nominated for various accolades, including two Grammy Awards. It helped Grande win Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards in 2016, and won International Album of the Year at the Japan Gold Disc Awards in 2017.


Dangerous Woman was supported by four singles, including the US Billboard Hot 100 top ten hits "Side to Side" and "Dangerous Woman", and international top ten hit "Into You". The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, becoming Grande's first not to debut at number one in the United States. However, it ultimately became her best-performing album in the country up to that point. Internationally, the album topped record charts in Australia, Brazil, Italy, Ireland, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom, where it became Grande's first chart-topper. To support the album, Grande embarked on the Dangerous Woman Tour in 2017, which grossed over $71 million upon completion.

Recording and production[edit]

For the album's production, Grande worked with several music producers including Max Martin and Savan Kotecha who she worked with as executive producer.[22][23] Grande began recording songs for the album soon after the completion of her previous album, My Everything (2014), and continued throughout the summer and fall of 2015, between stops on her Honeymoon Tour, with her friends Tommy Brown and Victoria Monét.[24] Commenting about the album's direction, Grande stated, "It still sounds like me, but it feels like a more mature, evolved version. There's a nice blend of the R&B vibes and a nice blend of pop vibes. The whole body of work is a little darker and sexier and more mature."[25] Grande selected Martin as collaborators after his production on My Everything, she complimented Martin, saying, "He's like a mathematician. He knows music like math. It just makes sense to him."[25] The musician Ilya Salmanzadeh contributed to the album producing and writing songs with Martin, Grande, Kotecha and Alexander Kronlund, they developed several tracks present in the album, including "Into You, "Side to Side", "Greedy", "Everyday", "Bad Decisions" and "Touch It", while the title track was produced by Johan Carlsson and Martin.[26] All songs were recorded at MXM Studios in Los Angeles, California and also at Wolf Cousins Studios located in Stockholm, Sweden and mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach.[26] Grande wrote the song "Moonlight" with Monét, who also sang backing vocals.[27][26]


The album features guest appearances by several hip hop artists such as Lil Wayne, Future and Nicki Minaj (who previously collaborated with Grande in "Bang Bang" alongside Jessie J and "Get on Your Knees", from Minaj's third studio album The Pinkprint in which Grande is a featured artist); About the choice of collaborators, Grande said: "I love working with artists people don't expect me to work with."[20] During the recording sessions for "Everyday" Grande wanted to work with Future, but felt it wasn't the right thing because of the differences between them: "I knew I wanted to work with Future, but I didn't know if we could find the right song to do together because we're so different, but we found a dope vibe and it's very unique and exciting," she said.[28] According to Grande, "When his song comes on, it creates a physical response."[20] Grande included Nicki Minaj on "Side to Side," stating "I love working with her".[29] Singer Macy Gray was invited to record "Leave Me Lonely" after she met with Republic Records's A&R Wendy Goldstein. In an interview with Fuse, the singer explained how the collaboration happened: "They were just in the middle of finishing the album, and they had that "Leave Me Lonely," and at the time, the person who wrote it was just singing on it, just to show whoever was gonna sing it how it would go, and so it was kind of a demo. And Wendy asked me to do it, and said 'Let me check with Ariana,' and then two days later we were in the studio and I went and cut it."[30]

Commercial performance[edit]

In the United States, Dangerous Woman officially debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 making it her only album that failed to reach the top spot. It earned 175,000 units, with 129,000 coming from pure album sales. The album was blocked from the top spot by Drake's Views.[146] In the second week, Dangerous Woman dropped to number six, selling another 50,000 equivalent units,[147] while in the third week, it slipped to number seven, with 33,000 equivalent units sold.[148] On April 12, 2021, Dangerous Woman was certified double platinum by the RIAA for combined album sales, on-demand audio, video streams and track-sale equivalent of two million units. As of June 2020, the album has sold 429,000 pure copies in the United States.[149]


In Japan, the album debuted at number two on the Oricon Albums Chart, selling 20,811 copies in its opening week, becoming Grande's highest album ranking in that region.[150] In the second week, the album dropped to number eight, selling 11,950 copies.[151] In the third week, it stayed at number eight, with 7,022 copies sold.[152] As of June 2016, Dangerous Woman has sold 50,000 copies in Japan. In September, it was certified Gold for shipments of 125,000 copies in the country.[153]


In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number one on the Official Albums Chart, her first number one album in the UK.[154] The album also reached the top of the charts in several other markets, including Australia,[155] Brazil,[156] Ireland,[157] Italy,[158] Netherlands,[159] New Zealand,[160] Norway,[161] and Spain.[162]


At the end of the year, Dangerous Woman was placed as the twenty-eighth best selling album of 2016, according to IFPI, selling 900,000 copies worldwide that year.[163]

signifies a main and vocal producer

^[a]

signifies a vocal producer

^[b]

Peter Carlsson is incorrectly credited as Peter Karlsson

^[c]

signifies a remixer

^[d]

Notes

One disc (Deluxe edition)

A poster

A tote bag

An eye mask

The European deluxe/limited edition box set includes:


The Japan deluxe edition includes:


The Japan Christmas edition includes:

at Discogs (list of releases)

Ariana Grande – Dangerous Woman