Pride Month: Ariana Grande Song Facts

INTO YOU by ARIANA GRANDE

This electric dance floor jam was produced by pop mastermind Max Martin and his co-writing and production partner Ilya Salmanzadeh. The same pair co-produced "Problem," the single that launched Grande from child star to mainstream prominence.

Grande penned the song with songwriters Savan Kotecha and Alexander Kronlund. She croons here of her desire for some risky, sexy love with her man, most likely her dancer boyfriend Ricky Alvarez.

There are references to the King of Rock 'n' Roll, Elvis Presley, and the Queen of R&B, Mariah Carey, in the hook.

A little bit dangerous, but baby, that's how I want it
A little less conversation, and a little more touch my body

Grande is singing of Elvis' "A Little Less Conversation" and Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body."

The Hannah Lux Davis-directed video finds Grande getting intimate with her beefy bodyguard beau in the desert. Davis also directed Grande's videos for "Love Me Harder" and "Focus" (as well as her Jessie J collab "Bang Bang").

Grande's hunk is played by America's Next Top Model alum, Don Benjamin. In the video, the tattooed bodyguard has a penchant for bandanas, much like Grande's real-life boyfriend, Ricky Alvarez.

PROBLEM by ARIANA GRANDE

The first single from Ariana Grande's second album, the songstress performed the tune for the first time at the Radio Disney Music Awards on April 27, 2014.

The boisterous song was originally written by the American songwriter Savan Kotecha, who has co-penned many of One Direction's hit tunes. Ariana then worked on the track with Swedish hitmaker Max Martin, who previously created such hit tunes as "…Baby One More Time," "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "Roar.

Ariana told MTV News of Max Martin: "He's amazing. I love working with him. He's like a mathematician. He knows music like math. It just makes sense to him."

The song finds Ariana singing about her insecurities about renewing a relationship with a former boyfriend whom she knows isn't good for her. "'Problem' truly represents the feeling of being absolutely terrified to re-approach a relationship that's gone sour - but you want to more than anything," she explained to Billboard magazine.

Ariana added that the song is based on her still-evolving relationship with an actual ex: "In the song, it ends on a sappy, negative note, but in [real] life, we're hoping it's going to end on a positive one," she said. "I feel like it's all very honest and human."

Rapper Big Sean provides the whisper-like vocals on the chorus. He previously featured on Ariana's 2013 single "Right There."

This song ends abruptly with a drop in backing music and one final vocal embellishment from Ariana. Because it cuts out in the middle of all the action, it fakes the listener into expecting more of the song and leaves them hungry for more. Since the last bit they hear is Ariana's voice, there's a good chance they'll seek out more of her songs to satisfy the craving.

The song reached #1 on the iTunes singles chart in just 37 minutes after its release. This broke the previous record held by Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," which reached the top position within 50 minutes.

Speaking about working with Ariana on the song, Azalea told MTV UK: "We'd actually been talking about doing a collaboration for about a year. We spoke about me being on her first album and it didn't end up happening and so it's great to be on her first single. It's a cool song, really good vibe."

This began as a track written by Kotecha that he gave the working title of "The Whisper Song," after a 2005 Ying Yang Twins hit. "I don't remember where I came up with it," he told Rolling Stone. "Maybe in an airplane bathroom. On my phone I have an audio note where I whisper, 'One less problem.'"

The Ying Yang Twins were originally brought in for the rapped part but they couldn't get it together, so Ariana pushed for Iggy Azalea instead.

Ariana was initially thrown by the muted chorus. "I was scared to approach it, because of the whispers," she admitted. "Their objective was to do the opposite of a traditional song structure. The idea was to have a really belt-y verse and then a completely minimalistic, whispering, basic chorus. At first, I just didn't like being all belt-y right away."

Iggy's line, "I got 99 problems but you won't be one" is a reference to the Jay Z song "99 Problems," while "Iggy Iggy too biggie to be here stressin'" is a nod to The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Hypnotize."

Ariana originally didn't want to include "Problem" on her sophomore album, but was convinced of its potential after playing it in a meeting with her label and management. She decided to strengthen the song with the help of Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, whom she met while attending Katy Perry's MTV EMAs after-party in October 2013. "I was a fan of hers from when she put 'Work' out," said Ariana of Iggy's 2013 single. "I thought she was so sensible and down-to-earth and talented."

There's no mistaking Azalea for anyone else in this song, mostly because she plugs herself three times (no one else does). In the intro, she announces "It's Iggy Iggs!" and in the rap bridge she introduces herself a second time and later adds:
When I ain't around you
Iggy Iggy
Too biggie to be here stressin'

It's always a good idea to have a few big names in one song to amp up the potential for success, but Ariana Grande's guest stars also give her an edge on demographics. While her own voice - and rep as a Nickelodeon star - draws in young listeners from the pre-teen/mid-teen crowd, Big Sean's breathy whispers and Azalea's rap attract young adults (Big Sean also gives guys a way to relate to an otherwise female song), and the overall sound hooks the 30-and-up audience nostalgic for '90s R&B.

There shouldn't be a problem remembering this simple title - it's mentioned 34 times throughout the song.

This was the first #1 in the UK to be based on combined sales and streaming after audio streams were incorporated in the chart. In its first week of release the song achieved sales of 113,000 copies, comprising 106,000 sales and 712,000 streams. (According to the UK chart's new criteria, 100 streams is equivalent to one download sale).

Iggy Azalea is officially credited as a featured artist, making her the first ever female MC to reach the summit of the UK singles charts. The previous highest chart placing achieved by a female rapper was # 2, a position reached by Salt N' Pepa with "Push It" and "Let's Talk About Sex" and Nicki Minaj with "Starships."

There is a caveat - some chart watchers state that Missy Elliott was the first female rapper to top the UK chart, because of her 1998 rapped intro to Mel B's #1 "I Want You Back."

Grande's little laugh at the beginning of the song came from an attempt to ad-lib a saucy spoken vocal along the lines of what Britney Spears did ("It's Britney Bitch") at the top of "Gimme More." When Grande tried it (at the urging for her producers), it came off more demonic than sexy, and they started laughing hysterically. Part of this laugh was incorporated into the song, just as Azalea introduces herself.

BEST MISTAKE by ARIANA GRANDE

This slow burning ballad finds Grande contemplating ending a fractured relationship. She sings:

Break-up, make-up, total waste of time.
Can we please make up our minds

Though it's obviously time to part ways, the singer is finding it difficult to walk away from her guy.

Big Sean contributes a verse halfway through the song in which he continues the break-up and make-up concept. The rapper recorded his rhymes around the time that he split from his girlfriend Naya Rivera, which may well have influenced his lyrics.

Sean previously worked with Grande on her Yours Truly single "Right There" as well as whispering some lines on her hit tune "Problem."

FOCUS by ARIANA GRANDE

This horn-heavy song was penned by Ariana Grande with American songwriter Savan Kotecha and Swedish songsmiths Ilya and Peter Svensson. It was produced by Max Martin.

Savan Kotecha, Ilya and Max Martin also co-wrote "Problem," the lead single from Grande's previous album My Everything, while former Cardigans guitarist previously contributed to another of the songstress' singles, "Love Me Harder."

The sassy song opens with Grande singing: "I know what I came to do, and that ain't gonna change." She explained in a video blog that the lyric has a very powerful meaning behind it. "What I came here to do in this world is not only to entertain but to love, to share, to listen, to improve, to learn, to share music, to share experience, to share feelings, to make people feel happy and empowered," the singer said.

"To make people feel like they're not alone. Without using my voice to do those things I would feel empty," Grande continued.

The chorus finds Grande pleading multiple times, "Focus on me."

"When I say 'focus on me' I'm not asking to be the center of attention. I'm not asking you to focus on my face or my clothes or my body or my singing voice," she explained. "By 'focus on me,' I literally mean focus on me. Focus on what I'm all about and what I believe in."

"The more we focus on each other as people and not on what we look like, what we're wearing, our gender, our hairstyle, our sexuality, the color of our skin," Grande continued. "But focus on each other on a soul level. The more we realize how much we have in common, the more we listen to each other, the more one we become."

Jamie Foxx is the guy supplying the male vocals on the 'Focus on me' chorus.

The single cover art features Grande with lilac blonde hair. It was shot by celebrity videographer Alfredo Flores.

Hannah Lux Davis directed the song's video, which also features Grande with her new white colored hair. Davis had previously directed other music clips of Grande such as "Love Me Harder" and her joint single with Jessie J and Nicki Minaj, "Bang Bang."

This was originally intended to be the lead single from Dangerous Woman. However, the song was cut from the standard edition track listing, and only included as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of the album. The title track replaced it as the lead single.

LOVE ME HARDER by ARIANA GRANDE

This song finds Ariana pairing up with Toronto R&B singer The Weeknd, who is best known for penning explicit tunes about his sexual exploits. The two singers trade verses about keeping the girl happy by loving her harder.

The song was produced by Max Martin who supplies a throbbing soundscape. The Swedish hitmaker also worked with Grande on her hit singles "Problem" and "Break Free."

The music video was directed by Hannah Lux Davis, who also helmed the clip for Grande's joint single "Bang Bang." The promo features The Weeknd helping Grande get the love she desires. "Our visuals are really about this tug of war of just loving harder and the compromise of giving in and needing more and wanting more," Hannah Lux Davis explained. "Just honesty."

The Weeknd recalled to Rolling Stone receiving a demo sung by labelmate Ariana Grande. "It was a great song," he said, "but it was a little generic. I couldn't hear myself on it. So I changed it and made it dark."

The Weeknd rewrote the lyrics and sent them back to Max Martin. It was a turning point for the Canadian R&B singer - his first hit single. "It was kind of like the label giving me an alley-oop," he said. "I think that's where the stars aligned for me. When I see an opening, I penetrate it."

The song was originally penned by the Swedish songwriter-producers Max Martin, Peter Svensson and Ali Payami with American hitmaker Savan Kotecha. The Weeknd then added some of his flavor helped by frequent collaborator, Belly.

"I remember sitting in a studio in L.A. and me and (Peter Svensson) were just playing around," Payami recalled to Billboard magazine. "A few days later, he showed me this voice note with a part of a melody that we had played, and we tried to recreate it. From there, the whole thing came together. Savan (Kotecha) came in with more melodies and lyrics, and then after that the Weeknd did his thing."

Pride Month: song facts about popular songs

SIDE TO SIDE by ARIANA GRANDE (featuring NICKI MINAJ )

This finds Grande in a relationship with a bad boy despite the warnings from her friends. It appears they have had so much sex, Grande can't walk straight - he's got her "walkin' side to side."

This island-sounding jam features a verse by Nicki Minaj, marking the third time the two superstars have collaborated on a song. The pair previously appeared on Jessie J's 2014 track "Bang Bang" and The Pinkprint's "Get on Your Knees."

The reggae pop song's dancehall riddim was supplied by Swedish hitmaker Max Martin and his co-writing and production partner Ilya Salmanzadeh. Martin and Ilya produced as a pair four of Dangerous Woman's eleven tracks and also separately worked on another one each.

Two other hitmakers, Savan Kotecha and Alexander Kronlund, are also credited as writers along with Grande and Minaj.

The video finds Ariana Grande spinning, boxing and weightlifting in the gym clad in a combination of spandex and casual threads from GUESS's "Active" women's line. She's later joined by Nicki Minaj for a post-workout session in an electric blue sauna.

The clip was directed by Hannah Lux Davis, who has filmed a number of videos for the pair. She shot Grande's "Focus" and "Into You," as well as Minaj's "Only" and " The Night Is Still Young" visuals. They also all worked together on the trio's collaboration with Jessie J, "Bang Bang."

The lyrics detail the painful downside of having an overly active sex life. "That whole song is about riding leading to soreness," Grande confessed to MTV News. "'Ride dick bicycle' is the lyric, indeed."

Grande is referring to Minaj's line where she sings:

Wrist icicle
Ride dick bicycle
Come true yo
Get you this type of blow

Minaj covers the bridge of this song with two distinct sections, one sung ("This is the new style, with the fresh type of flow"), one rapped ("All these bitches flows is my mini-me"). She also appears at the beginning of the song namechecking Grande, then at the end where both singers close out the song together, with Minaj repeating her sung section from the bridge.

The song opens with the chorus, which shows up four times in the song, but with different elements in each repetition. Each chorus builds in intensity, with more backing vocals added for each progression.

Musically, the track never gets very dense, which pushes the vocals out front. There are lots of different instruments and vocal tracks in the mix, but they are constantly coming in and out. Listen for hand claps, finger snaps, synth stabs, a woodblock, and even a saxophone.

MILLION REASONS by LADY GAGA

Lady Gaga sings on this country-flavored power ballad of her determination to stay in a relationship that appears to have run its course. She penned the heartbreaking song with Nashville songwriter Hillary Lindsey, who also worked with her for two other songs on Joanne. Lindsey is probably best known for the many hit tunes she's co-penned for Carrie Underwood, as well as Little Big Town's "Girl Crush."

A Rhinestone-clad Lady Gaga performed the song live for the first time on October 5, 2016, when she kicked off her Dive Bar Tour in the US at Nashville's 5 Spot. Hillary Lindsay shared the microphone on harmonies. When Gaga introduced the tune she told the crown in a country accent:

"I wrote this song with a Nashville native, Hillary Lindsey. We sat on a couch together, and we were going back and forth, guitar and piano, and we were going, 'Why these men, you know?' All these men - my dad, my boyfriend, all the men in my life - they gave me a million reasons [to leave], but I just need one good one to stick around but you're giving me a million to walk away. Ladies and gentlemen, Hillary Lindsey."

Gaga performed this song on the October 24, 2016 episode of Saturday Night Live with Hillary Lindsey accompanying her on acoustic guitar.

The lyrics were rumored to be about Gaga's breakup with her former fiancé Taylor Kinney, but the singer told Howard Stern they were written about all the men in her life, including Kinney, her father and every other guy she's had a relationship with. "It's never just about the guy," she said. "It's always about that guy, the guy before him."

The song was also written for women all over the world. "How cool is it that it was #1 in Saudi Arabia?... I just really want women to be heard," Gaga said. "I've dated a lot of cowboys and I just really want women to be heard... Not in a way that 'men are bad,' but I think it's time for us to heal from those wounds that divide us. In this country we are so divided. I just hope this album provides some healing."

Lady Gaga performed the song at the UK's Royal Variety Performance in front of Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall on December 6, 2016.

Gaga sang this during her halftime performance at the 2017 Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons. "We're here to make you feel good," she told the crowd before starting the song. She managed to say hi to her mom and dad in the middle of the song.

The song originally dropped out of the Hot 100 after peaking at #52. However, it got a post-Super Bowl bump, sending it back to the chart, all the way to #4. This is one of the million reasons Super Bowl acts play for free.

HOLD UP by BEYONCÉ

Lemonade is a concept album, where Beyoncé recounts a story of discovering and wrestling with her husband's infidelity. This is the second track, by which stage her suspicions have been aroused.

On this kiss-off, Beyoncé attests that no-one loves her husband like she does, so it would be unwise for Jay-Z to cheat on her.

Hold up, they don't love you like I love you
Slow down, they don't love you like I love you
Back up, they don't love you like I love you
Step down, they don't love you like I love you

The song was produced by Diplo of Major Lazer and Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend. It was Koenig's first credit on a Beyoncé song.

In 2011, Diplo produced " End of Time" on Beyoncé's 4 while her single "Run the World (Girls)" sampled Major Lazer's "Pon de Floor." Diplo also co-produced the Lemonade track "All Night."

The track includes interpolations from Soulja Boy's "Turn My Swag On" ("I hop up out the bed, turn my swag on") and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Maps." It also samples the instrumental intro to Andy Williams's "Can't Get Used to Losing You."

Instead of directly sampling "Maps" chorus which goes, "Wait, they don't love you like I love you," Beyoncé alternately sings, "Hold up, they don't love you like I love you." It was Ezra Koenig who first thought of the change, tweeting the revised line on October 21, 2011.

Three years later, Keoenig was in a studio with Diplo, where they were working on a "Can't Get Used to Losing You" loop. Koenig wrote some lyrics based off his old tweet to go with it, which he intended to release as a Vampire Weekend song. Someone, however convinced him to send it to Beyoncé. Koenig said. "Beyoncé 100% made it her own, and I'm very glad to have been a part of it."

Psychedelic rock singer-songwriter Father John Misty (once of Fleet Foxes) wrote the first verse and refrain. Producer/composer Emile Haynie (Eminem, Kanye West, Ice Cube), singer-songwriter MNEK (of "Never Forget You" fame) producer Onye Anyanwu and Brooklyn multimedia artist Melo-X also have writing credits.

Father John Misty recalled how Beyoncé came to record his demo:

"About a year and half ago, my friend Emile Haynie played Beyoncé some of my music, along with some tunes I've written for other people, back when she was looking for collaborators for the record…Pretty soon after they sent along the demo for 'Hold Up', which was just like a minute of the sample and the hook. I'm pretty sure they were just looking for lyrics, but I went crazy and recorded a verse melody and refrain too…

I was mostly kind of in the dark, my involvement with the record kind of ends with me just sending off the demo, it wasn't until she came to my Coachella set in 2015 and told me personally it had made the record that I really had anything concrete with which to convince my friends that I hadn't actually gone insane."

Speaking to Under The Radar, Misty revealed that the best moment of 2015 was when he caught Beyoncé dancing to his set at Coachella. "The low point has been everything since," he added.

Co-writer Melo-X also sang backup vocals. He recalled to Pitchfork: "I kind of put a bunch of ideas down. A bunch of harmonies, a bunch of different layers, and she kept a lot of that in. In the second chorus you can hear my vocals under hers coming in. It's cool that she kept that. I was just putting that there to create a vibe. I had like in my mind, I was thinking of Bob Marley and his backup singers, he had his wife, and how they would harmonize to a lot things that he did. So I took to that approach with the background vocals that I did."

The video shows Beyoncé gleefully smashing car windows and police surveillance cameras with a baseball bat all while maniacally asking: "What's worse, looking jealous or crazy?" The visual sequence draws heavily on Swiss video artist Pipilotti Rist's 1997 installation "Everything Is Over All."

Father John Misty commented that it finds it unbelievable, "when you consider how ridiculous my voice sounds on the demo," that his lyrics ended up "right between picking up the baseball bat and decapitating the fire hydrant."

Asked by HMV.com how his contribution to the song came about, MNEK replied: "My publisher Jon Platt introduced us. She liked what I did and used it and sounded amazing doing it. I was a massive fan of Beyonce growing up so it was an absolute honor."

This won the award for Best Female Video at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. It was one of eight wins for Beyoncé that night.

MNEK is one of 15 credited songwriters. He told BBC the track is essentially a Frankenstein's Monster, stitched together from dozens of demos.

"She played me the chorus," he said. "Then I came back here [to my studio] and recorded all the ideas I had for the song. Beyoncé snipped out the pieces she really liked and the end result was this really great, complete song."

KISS IT BETTER by RIHANNA

Rihanna is addressing a former lover on this R&B power ballad, telling him to stop being so stubborn and just take her back. She knows that like her, he's been hurt by their breakup, so she urges him to swallow his pride and "kiss it better." The song was first previewed in December 2014 on Rihanna's Instagram page.

Rihanna wrote the song with:

American songwriter and producer Jeff Bhasker who has won Grammy Awards for the songs "Run This Town" by Jay-Z, "All of the Lights" by Kanye West, and "We Are Young" by Fun. His other credits include co-writing and co-producing Mark Ronson's smash hit, "Uptown Funk."

British singer-songwriter and actress Teddy Sinclair (real name Natalia Cappuccini), who started her recording career under the name of Verbalicious and released her debut single "Don't Play Nice" in March 2005. The song charted at #11 in the UK singles chart but her then record label later filed for bankruptcy and little was heard from her for a few years. Cappuccini then adopted the stage name Natalia Kills from the interjection "you killed it!", after her record company advised her that her legal name was "indescribable." She released two albums under that name, before reverting to Teddy Sinclair in 2015.

American vocal producer Thaddis "Kuk" Harrell who was a member of a songwriting–production team comprised of himself, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Terius "The Dream" Nash. Harrell was the vocal producer and co-writer of Rihanna's Grammy-winning single "Umbrella" and earned another Grammy for the vocal production of Rihanna's "Only Girl (In The World)". His other credits include being a composer and engineer on Beyoncé's chart topping "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it)."

Producer/songwriter Glass John, whose other credits include Chris Brown's 2013 single "Home." John caused a stir at the end of 2015 when he took to Twitter on an extended rant about the delay in completing Anti and how Rihanna's alleged boyfriend Travi$ Scott was sabotaging the LP.

John then went on to claim that "Kiss It Better" was supposed to be the album's lead single, tweeting, "ME AND MY WIFE (meaning Rihanna) WENT IN THE STUDIO W/ CLASSIC HIT MAKER @JEFFBHASKER TO CREATW A CLASSIC ANTHEM. And f--king Travis prevented it from being her first $ingle and launching her album last year."

Rihanna was scheduled to perform this song at the Grammy Awards in 2016, but she had to cancel after coming down with bronchitis.

The sultry black-and-white music video was directed by British fashion photographer Craig McDean. It features Rihanna moving around and rolling about in various stages of undress. The singer is literally the only thing in the frame throughout the clip.

McDean, who had previously shot Rihanna for magazines such as T and Vogue, told The Fader that he filmed the video in Los Angeles over a "very long night." McDean added that the inspiration for the clip was based on ideas which were inspired by dadaism and surrealism. "It all comes from you as a person, your inner inspiration and ideas you've had inside for a lifetime," he said.

McDean also spoke about the prominent use of dice that he and creative partner Masha Vayukova incorporated into the video: "Me and Masha watch the same kind of films, we look at a lot of books and art and it all merges together on the set, which is a great playground for visual experiments," he said. "Sometimes it's all about combining things that might not make any sense, [like] subconsciousness and dreams. Dice is such a graphic and surrealistic object so it came into play."

Rihanna recorded the song at Jungle City Studios, New York City and enlisted Extreme's Nuno Bettencourt to play guitar on the track.

MAKE ME by BRITNEY SPEARS

The first single from Britney Spears' ninth studio album finds the songstress with one thing on her mind. Sparks are flying between Spears and her lover and when they go back to her room she coos they will "ignite in the heat of the moment."

The song features some rhymes from rapper G-Eazy. He recalled to KIIS FM in the US. "I got the call when I was in Australia on tour, and they were like, 'Yo, Britney Spears wants you on her single'. I'm like, 'Stop playing.'"

He added: "I got the email and I listened to it and I was like, 'S--t - it's a big record'. So I knocked it out that night."

Spears wrote the song with British singer-songwriter Joe Janiak, who also penned the original version of Ellie Goulding's single "Beating Heart."

The sensual, R&B-infused production was supplied by an English DJ called Burns, whose single "Lies" peaked at #32 on the UK Singles Chart in 2012.

How did Britney first team up with G-Eazy? She explained to Ryan Seacrest: "I worked with an amazing A&R girl, Karen. She got me together with a lot of people - Julia Michaels, a lot of the new up and coming artists. It was her idea - she's very gifted at knowing what sounds good."

The song's music video is a video about the making of the video. (Bear with us). As the sultry slow jam plays, Britney and some friends audition some hot guys for her music clip. Unfortunately, G-Eazy doesn't get to cast for the singer; he's just there on a video screen. The clip was directed by Randee St. Nicholas, who also shot Britney's "Piece Of Me" promo photos.

The video was originally directed by David LaChapelle, who previously shot the clip for Spears' 2004 single "Everytime." Apparently his effort was scrapped by Spears and her team in favour of a less racy concept.

Britney Spears explained the album title to Radio.com: "I decided to call the album Glory because my son was with me through a lot of the process of recording, and he saw me coming home every night and he'd play the songs, and it was his idea," she said. "He just randomly came up with it. It was kind of cool."

Burns recorded the original song in a friend's kitchen back in 2015. After it got picked up by Spears' people, he hit the studio with her for a couple of days to record the vocals. "You think that there might be this diva-ish personality with somebody of that level," he told Billboard magazine of his time spent with the singer, "but she was just so normal, it's crazy."