Sweetener (album)
Sweetener is the fourth studio album by American singer Ariana Grande. It was released on August 17, 2018, through Republic Records. Grande co-wrote all the songs on the album except for the first track, and its production was handled by Pharrell Williams, Charles Anderson, Hit-Boy, Ilya Salmanzadeh, and Max Martin, with guest features from Williams, Nicki Minaj and Missy Elliott.
Sweetener
August 17, 2018
- MXM
- The Lunchtable (Los Angeles)
- Glenwood Place (Burbank)
- Jungle City
- Germano (New York City)
- Midnight Blue
- South Beach (Miami)
- Wolf Cousins
- MXM (Stockholm)
- District 4–12 (Northridge)
47:25
- Charles Anderson
- Brian Malik Baptiste
- Tommy Brown
- Michael Foster
- Hit-Boy
- Ilya
- Max Martin
- Pharrell Williams
The album explores themes of romance, sexual intimacy, unhealthy relationships, womanhood, anxiety, and perseverance through hardships. Primarily a pop, R&B and trap record, it also incorporates elements of house, funk, neo soul and hip hop music, mainly consisting of uptempo tunes and downtempo ballads, which heavily incorporate harmonies. Sweetener received critical acclaim upon its release, favoring the experimental nature of its production. Some critics considered it a vital record in Grande's career due to its subject matter. It won Best Pop Vocal Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, scoring Grande her first Grammy Award. Sweetener featured in numerous publications' year-end music lists of the best albums of 2018, and was subsequently inducted in decade-end lists of the 2010s.
Three singles were released from Sweetener, all of which reached the top-fifteen of the US Billboard Hot 100. The lead single, "No Tears Left to Cry", debuted and peaked at number three, while the second and third singles, "God Is a Woman" and "Breathin", reached numbers eight and twelve, respectively. Sweetener debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, making it Grande's third album to reach the summit. It was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and topped charts in many other countries, including in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Grande ventured on a four-show promotional tour, entitled The Sweetener Sessions, after the album's release. Launched in further support of both Sweetener and its successor, Thank U, Next (2019), Grande embarked on the Sweetener World Tour in 2019.
Background and recording[edit]
On May 20, 2016, Grande released her third studio album Dangerous Woman, which was met with positive reviews and commercial success. Work on Sweetener commenced around early July of that year, the first song created being the title track, co-written and produced by Pharrell Williams.[3] On November 13, 2016, Grande stated on Snapchat that she had finished her fourth album. Later, she clarified by saying, "I didn't mean to make an album, and I don't know if it's done at all, but I just have a bunch of songs that I really really like. I've been working a lot and have been creating and feeling inspired."[4][5] Further confirmation came in December 2017, when Grande confirmed that she was still working on the album.[6]
Grande's manager Scooter Braun told Variety that the album has a more mature sound: "It's time for [Ariana] to sing the songs that define her... Whitney, Mariah, Adele – when they sing, that's their song. Ariana has big vocal moments; it's time for her song."[7] Williams told Los Angeles Times: "The things that [Ariana] has to say on this album, it's pretty next-level."[8] Producers Max Martin and Savan Kotecha were later confirmed to have collaborated with Grande in the album.[9] On December 28, 2017, Grande shared several pictures of her in the studio throughout the year.[10] On December 31, 2017, Grande shared a snippet from the album on her Instagram, with the caption "see u next year"; it was later revealed that the track was the closing track on the album, titled "Get Well Soon".[11]
In April 2018, it was reported that Grande was planning on releasing the album's lead single on April 27, 2018. The following week, on April 16, 2018, it was reported that Grande had moved up the lead single release to April 20, 2018, due to label-mate Post Malone's album Beerbongs & Bentleys being released on April 27.[12] The following day, Grande announced the album's lead single, "No Tears Left to Cry" and revealed the release date to be April 20, 2018.[13]
Grande appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she announced that her album was titled Sweetener and that it would be released that summer. She further explained the meaning behind the title is "It's kind of about like bringing light to a situation, or to someone's life, or somebody else who brings light to your life, or sweetening the situation."[14] A May 2018 cover article in Time magazine by Sam Lansky noted that, for the first time with this album, Grande "took the lead on writing".[15] In late May 2018, she announced that the album would feature fifteen tracks and three collaborations, which are Missy Elliott, Nicki Minaj and Williams.[16]
In early June 2018, Grande announced during her set at Wango Tango that the album would be available for pre-order on June 20, and "The Light Is Coming" would be released as a promotional single along with it.[17] The second single, "God Is a Woman", was announced to be released on July 20, 2018,[18] however, on July 12, Grande surprised fans by announcing that the single would be released the following day.[19] Prior to the album's release, Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic commented that the first three singles from the album "sparked with a sense of defiance and rattled mortality ... [a] trifecta of pseudo-spiritualism and sneaky innovation. ... Grande's music and videos radiate [intoxicating, unworried confidence]".[20]
Title and artwork[edit]
Grande hinted the album title to be Sweetener in an Instagram post on November 5, 2016.[69] On May 1, 2018, Grande appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon where she formally announced the title, and further explained: "It's kind of about like bringing light to a situation, or to someone's life, or somebody else who brings light to your life, sweetening the situation."[14]
The artwork for Sweetener consists of colorful, upside-down and other-worldly visuals. The cover of the album's lead single, "No Tears Left to Cry", features Grande's side profile lit by a rainbow and the title of the song written in rotated, upside-down text.[70] In the song's music video, Grande is seen walking on walls and ceilings. The cover of the album's only promotional single, "The Light Is Coming", which features Nicki Minaj, is an upside-down picture of Grande.[71] After her performance of "No Tears Left To Cry" on The Tonight Show, where the set was inspired by the song's music video and photo shoot, Grande took to Instagram to reveal that the film was one of the inspirations for the aesthetic.[72]
Grande revealed on Twitter that the inspiration for the upside-down theme was when she showed a friend sitting opposite her a picture, and "he said 'I even love it upside-down' and that was kind of it for me. At the time I had been feeling very 'upside-down' for a while & the simplicity of that was like, 'oh duh, wow, my bestie a genius.' Everything clicked after that."[73] The album artwork of Sweetener is a simplistic upside-down portrait of Grande with grey hair on a cream-colored background with the title of the album written in dark brown at the bottom. It was shot by Dave Meyers, who directed the music videos for the album's first two singles, "No Tears Left to Cry" and "God Is a Woman", and the promotional single "The Light Is Coming". It was revealed piece by piece on a separate Instagram account, named after the album, starting on June 12, 2018, leading up to the release of the album's pre-order on June 20, 2018.[74] The artwork was the first in her discography to be in color, which she said was because it was "a new chapter. For the first time, my life is in color, as well."[75] In 2023, Joe Lynch of Billboard named it the 98th best album cover of all time.[76]
Commercial performance[edit]
United States[edit]
According to Billboard, as of 2022, Sweetener is one of the 15 best-performing 21st-century albums without any of its singles being number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100.[133] Sweetener debuted at number-one on the US Billboard 200 with 231,000 album-equivalent units, of which 127,000 represented traditional album sales. It marked Grande's third number one album in the US and her fastest-selling album to date. Among female artists, Sweetener scored the second-largest US sales debut of 2018, behind Cardi B's Invasion of Privacy (255,000 album-equivalent units).[134]
The album's songs recorded 126.7 million on-demand audio US streams through its first week, constituting the largest streaming week ever for a non-hip hop album by a woman, a record later bested by Grande's Thank U, Next.[135] It was also the fourth non-hip hop record ever to cross 125 million on-demand first-week streams. Billboard noted Sweetener's strong performance on streaming services was remarkable for a pop album at the time, since streaming was dominated by rap music.[134]
On the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, issue dated September 1, 2018, ten of Grande's songs (nine of which are from Sweetener) charted simultaneously, placing Grande as the fourth female artist with the most simultaneous entries on the chart for a female soloist, behind Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Cardi B.[136] The same week, Grande ascended to number one on the Artist 100 chart, due to strong album sales and song streams.[137] In its second week, Sweetener descended to number four, moving 75,000 equivalent album units,[138] while in its third week, it fell one position to number five, with a furthered 56,000 units earned.[139]
Sweetener was ranked 38th on the 2018 year-end Billboard 200 chart.[140] The succeeding year, on the 2019 year-end Billboard 200 chart, Sweetener was ranked as 32nd most popular album of the year. On August 17, 2023, the fifth anniversary of its release, Sweetener was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over two million units in the US.[141] As of June 2020, the album has sold 321,000 copies in the country.[142]
Other territories[edit]
Sweetener topped the record charts of 22 territories, and reached the top 10 in six other markets. In the United Kingdom, Sweetener debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, moving 45,000 album-equivalent units.[143] It became her second number-one album in the UK, and her fastest selling album to date.[144] Following its release, two album tracks entered the UK Singles Chart as "Breathin" debuted at number eight, and "Sweetener" landed at number 22, while the single "God Is a Woman" ascended six places to number six.[145] Sweetener was the best-performing album of 2018 by a foreign female artist in the UK.[146] It has been certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), for shipments of over 300,000 units in the country.
In Australia, the album became Grande's third number one on the ARIA Albums Chart.[147] All 15 of the album's tracks placed on the ARIA Singles Chart simultaneously, becoming Grande's first album to do so.[148] It ranked as the country's fourth-best-selling album by a female soloist in 2018.[149] Additionally, two Sweetener singles, "No Tears Left to Cry" and "God Is a Woman", landed in ARIA's annual top singles chart for the same year.[150]
Notes
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Sweetener.[151]
Performers and musicians
Production
Artwork