The Year in Music 2018: Thank u, next — Ariana's bitterSweetener year

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Dave Meyers/Republic RecordsTo paraphrase what Ariana Grande said in her Billboard Woman of the Year speech, 2018 marked the best year for her professionally and the worst year for her personally.

Let’s start with the good: Ariana released an ode to her ex-boyfriends, “thank u, next,” which became her first solo number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also became a viral pop culture moment, thanks in part to its music video, in which Ariana recreated scenes from Mean Girls, 13 Going on 30, Legally Blonde and Bring It On. The video broke Vevo’s 24-hour view count record, with over 50 million views.

Before “thank u, next” took the world by storm, Ariana had released the album Sweetener, featuring the singles “No Tears Left to Cry” and “God Is Woman.” The album, her first set of new music since the May 2017 bombing outside her concert in Manchester, U.K., debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. It also scored Ariana a 2019 Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Pop Solo Performance, for “God Is a Woman.”

The year was heartbreaking for Ariana, though, in terms of her love life. Back in May, Ariana ended her two-year relationship with rapper Mac Miller, citing the relationship as “toxic.” After a fan tried to blame Ariana for the break-up and Mac’s troubles, she shut him down.

“I have cared for him and tried to support his sobriety and prayed for his balance for years (and always will of course),” she wrote of Miller. “But shaming/blaming women for a man’s inability to keep his s*** together is a very major problem.”

Sadly, Mac — birth name Malcolm McCormick — died of an accidental overdose in September at age 26. Ariana posted a tribute to Mac on Instagram, writing in part, “you were my dearest friend. for so long. above anything else. i’m so sorry i couldn’t fix or take your pain away.”

Following her split from Mac, Ariana began a whirlwind romance with SNL’s Pete Davidson. The two were engaged in June after just a few weeks of dating, moved into a lavish NYC apartment together, got multiple tattoos dedicated to each other, and adopted a pet pig, Piggy Smallz. But it was all apparently too much, too soon. IN October, following Miller’s death, Ariana called off her engagement to Davidson.

Ariana poured all of her relationship feels into “thank u, next,” singing, “Even almost got married/And for Pete I’m so thankful/Wish I could say thank you to Malcolm/’Cause he was an angel.”

If all that didn’t keep Ariana busy enough, she also sang Aretha Franklin‘s funeral, released a docu-series on YouTube titled Dangerous Woman Diaries, announced a 2019 world tour, and recorded a entire new album, which as of Christmas had not yet been released.

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