Last week, Ariana Grande observed the one-year anniversary of the tragic bombing that occurred at her show in Manchester, and she revealed that even a year later, it’s still not an easy thing for her to think about. In a new cover story in The Fader, Grande expands further on her feelings, and reveals how it impacted her songwriting.
About the attack, she says she thought it would be less difficult to talk about at this point, but it just isn’t:
“I guess I thought with time, and therapy, and writing, and pouring my heart out, and talking to my friends and family that it would be easier to talk about, but it’s still so hard to find the words. When you’re so close to something so tragic and terrifying and opposite of what music and concerts are supposed to be, it kind of leaves you without any ground beneath your feet.”
What did bring her some happiness, though, was the response to the One Love Manchester benefit concert: “The fact that all of those people were able to turn something that represented the most heinous of humanity into something beautiful and unifying and loving is just wild.”
.@arianagrande is the second of four FADER Summer Issue cover stars. Read her cover story here: https://t.co/HSSFTdji5Q pic.twitter.com/4VfXXOr8R7
— The FADER (@thefader) May 30, 2018
Pharrell says that, as unfortunate is it is, the Manchester attack was the catalyst that helped the people around Grande understand that she needed to evolve as an artist, saying, “In all honesty, I feel like [after Manchester] was when different people from the record company actually started to understand what we were trying to do. It’s unfortunate that that situation is what gave it context, but they were able to really see it then. And that’s the truth.”
Grande continues that train of thought:
“I’ve always just been like a shiny, singing, 5-6-7-8, sexy-dance…sexy thing. But now it’s like, ‘OK … issa bop — but issa message. Issa bop but also has chunks of my soul in it. Here you go. Also, I cried 10 hundred times in the session writing it for you. Here is my bleeding heart, and here is a trap beat behind it.’ There’s definitely some crying-on-the-dancefloor stuff on this one.”
Read the full story here.
