'There’s definitely some crying-on the-dance-floor stuff on this one.'
Ariana Grande didn't hold anything back when making her upcoming album, Sweetner.
The 24-year-old pop star covers the latest issue of Fader and talks about how the bombing following her concert in Manchester, England, a year ago has affected how she makes music.
"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,'" she explains. "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-dance-floor stuff on this one."
Further opening up about the emotions that came with making this album, Grande notes, "I’ve never been this vulnerable to myself. I feel like I graduated almost. I feel like for a long time the songs were great, but they weren’t songs that made me feel something the way these songs do."
As for how she's coping a year after the horrific bombing, Grande admits that time hasn't yet healed all wounds. "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," she confides.
That being said, Grande is still overwhelmed with the support she has received from her fans, especially after the One Love Manchester concert, a benefit that was put on not long after the tragedy for the victims and their families.
“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," she recalls.
Grande says at this point in her life, she's now OK with letting her emotions run free. "I just started tearing up -- tears of gratitude because of perspective, because of growth, opening up and finding the ground again because of music, friends, and love," she notes. "I was just overwhelmed by how simple it can be if you let it.”
The "No Tears Left to Cry" singer was recently quite candid about her ex, Mac Miller. Check out what she told a fan on Twitter regarding their "toxic" relationship:
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