Ariana Grande channels Paula Abdul and Bob Fosse in “yes, and?” music video
Grande's new choreo-heavy music video is her first in over three years
Music News Ariana Grande
Everyone was waiting for Ariana Grande to descend back into the world of pop music like G(a)linda in her bubble, and nobody seems to know that better than Ariana herself. In her first single (and corresponding music video) under her own name in over three years, Grande is setting out to ask her haters, “yes, and?”
The song, which dropped at midnight last night, is a full-throated anthem to self-confidence and authenticity. Co-written by longtime Ari collaborators Max Martin and Ilya Salmanzadeh, “yes, and?” borrows heavily from Madonna’s “Vogue” and other dance floor classics, while also remaining solidly in Grande’s wheelhouse. “Now, I’m so done with caring/what you think, no, I won’t hide/underneath your own projections/or change my most authentic life,” she sings, echoing a sentiment the star also shared in a long, year-end message, in which she wrote that she had “never felt more pride or joy of love while simultaneously feeling so deeply misunderstood by people who don’t know me.”
The video, which dropped Friday morning, “says that shit with her chest,” to borrow Ari’s words. While she hasn’t necessarily been known as a dancer in the past, here Grande is setting out to blow up that assumption like a brittle old slab of granite… literally. As statues and stereotypes crumble around her, Grande twirls herself into a conversation started by Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz and advanced by pop—and specifically dance—icon Paula Abdul in her 1989 video for “Cold Hearted.” It’s a big swing to emulate these iconic moments and Grande is certainly no Abdul movement-wise, but it still mostly pays off for her.
In this format, Grande is able to literally face down her critics—they’re shown rolling their eyes about everything from her ponytail to her hiatus in an elevator ride before the performance—and win. By the end of the video, those same skeptics are dancing and clapping along to the beat, completely taken with Grande’s vision of the world. Whether real-life audiences will do the same, especially as the singer rolls out more singles from her upcoming seventh studio album, Eternal Sunshine, remains to be seen. But either way, it seems like Grande will keep doing her thing, with or without anyone else’s approval. If they come for her, she’ll just “keep moving like, ‘what’s next?’”
15 Comments
The internet is like, Ariana Grande’s new music video was inspired by Paula Absul’s Cold Hearted music video, but Paul’s music video was inspired by this scene in the movie Flashdance. So you all pay your respects!
why does this sound so much like the Gran Turismo menu music.
The video is cool. Love All That Jazz. The song is fine I guess. Not a fan of the breathy robot voice in the chorus. Would sound better if she just sang it normal.
You’ll have to wait for Grande 2.0 then. The current model just isn’t convincingly human yet (although you’d be surprised how long it took Pete Davidson to figure that out).
FINALLY some music about Improv 101. Rumor has it that “Yes, and…” will be followed by the singles “Rule of Threes,” “Support Your Scene Partner,” and “I Told My Parents I Made A Harold Team And Then Had To Explain What A Harold Team Was”
But wait! There’s more! You’ll also get such delights as… “That Time Del Close Shot Up In My Car,” “Amazing How All Your Improv Musicals Sound the Same,” “Resenting Charna Halpern,” “Funny How Often That Guy Makes Things Weird and Sexual,” and the ever-popular “Wait, I’m Paying HOW Much To Be Part of Shows You’re Also Charging Admission For While Not Giving Me a Cut (Oh Fuck This Whole Scene mix)”
Imagine Bob Fosse’s speed-drenched reaction
“Do it again”
“Thank U, Next.”“Yes, and?”So I suspect her next big releases on later albums may be titled something like:“No, however…”“Almost, but not quite!”“Perhaps later?”Or my personal favorite…“I’m eating right now.”
Yours aren’t snarky or contemptuous enough (though good). Swift, Grande, etc… It’s so cool to be pissed off. At least Gaga can embrace optimism.
It’s a big swing to emulate these iconic moments and Grande is certainly no Abdul movement-wise, but it still mostly pays off for herI just kinda love this. “It’s terrible and she’s terrible in it but it still…yeah it’s terrible”.
If you’re going to “say it with your chest” I’m going to expect to be able to hear you down the block – without an amp and autotune. And I’m not going to forgive the awful appropriation using that phrase. I guess Madonna would be proud because that’s what this is – Madonna lite.
Jeez, you’re “pressed” girl. So many entertainers turning themselves inside-out to make us understand they don’t care what we think.
BUT don’t stop buying my merchandise, music “act”. How exhausting.
See, here I was thinking she was going to dance with an animated cat.
Uninspired, dull & flat – emotionless, robotic, insipid, wildly lacking in originality.And the music is so boring! WTF is she doing vocally? And I guess she is “dancing”. I wonder when will her innocent little girl saying naughty words shtick finally evolve?But the whole concept is just a giant FU to her fans, critics, numerous exes… but keep watching, please!!