When did ariana grande start singing

1993-present

Ariana Grande Now: Wicked Actor Nets First Golden Globe Nomination

Wicked good news arrived for Ariana Grande on December 9: The singer and actor was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in Any Motion Picture at the 2025 Golden Globes. Grande portrays Glinda in the new movie adaptation of the musical Wickedalongside co-star and fellow Golden Globe nominee Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba. Chronicling the lives of two witches, this unofficial prequel to The Wizard of Oz is a story about friendship, which Grande and Erivo have embodied both on- and offscreen.

In an interview with Deadline in November, 31-year-old Grande shared that their friendship has continued to “grow” since the moment they met. “We both made the conscious decision when we met to take care of each other, and that’s what we have done in the realest of ways, every step,” she said. “I always say this, but it’s one of the things that I think we’re most proud of.”

Keep Reading

In addition to gaining a friend in Erivo, Wicked has allowed the singer to reconnect with her musical theater roots. She told the Las Culturistas podcast that she plans to scale back her pop career in order to pursue more roles in musicals. “It is my heart,” Grande said.

Her career-first Golden Globe nod could be a sign that’s a smart decision. “It’s just so surreal, and I just feel so deeply grateful,” Grande told The Hollywood Reporter after learning of her nomination. Since arriving in theaters November 22, Wicked has become the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation in the United States.

Who Is Ariana Grande?

Grammy-winning pop star Ariana Grande is best known for the songs “7 Rings,” “Thank U, Next,” “Rain On Me” with Lady Gaga, and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love).” Grande started her career on the stage, landing a role in the Broadway musical 13 as a teenager, before making her big break as Cat Valentine on the Nickelodeon show Victorious and its spinoff Sam & Cat. The Florida native then dove headfirst into a chart-topping music career after her debut album Yours Truly came out in 2013. In total, she has released an impressive seven albums in nine years, earning two Grammy Awards in the process. Returning to acting and musicals, Grande stars as Glinda in the 2024 movie adaption of Wicked. Her performance earned her a 2025 Golden Globe nomination.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Ariana Grande-Butera
BORN: June 26, 1993
BIRTHPLACE: Boca Raton, Florida
SPOUSE: Dalton Gomez (2021-2024)
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Cancer

Young Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande-Butera was born on June 26, 1993, in Boca Raton, Florida to graphic designer Ed Butera and businesswoman Joan Grande. She has an older half-brother named Frankie.

Ariana took to singing and acting at an early age and made her way onto the local theater scene. When she was 8 years old, she began performing with the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theater. Her first role was the title character in the musical Annie. That same year, Ariana also started singing on a cruise ship with various orchestras throughout South Florida. It was around this time that her parents divorced.

Her first major professional project came in 2008 when the 15-year-old landed the role of Charlotte in the Broadway production of 13, a play focusing on life growing up in New York City. The early role led to accolades, and Ariana won a National Youth Theatre Association Award. She also appeared in the musical Cuba Libre, had a small role in the YouTube series The Battery’s Down, and began acting in Hollywood.

Despite her theater and television commitments, Ariana attended high school at North Broward Preparatory School in Florida. She graduated in 2012.

Big Break in Victorious

In 2010, a teenaged Grande got her big break on the Nickelodeon series Victorious, about a group of talented students at a fictional performing arts high school in Los Angeles. Grande starred as Cat Valentine, a bubbly redhead known for showing off her acting chops and high vocal range. During filming, she had to dye her hair red every week, which eventually damaged it. The series ran for four seasons, abruptly ending in 2013.

After Victorious was canceled, Grande reprised her role as Cat in the spinoff show Sam & Cat, co-starring iCarly’s Jeanette McCurdy. Premiering in 2013, the series wasn’t on long before rumors began to swirl that Grande wasn’t particularly enjoying the experience. Sam & Cat quickly ended in 2014 after just one season.

More Nickelodeon Stars

While Grande’s role in Victorious transformed her into something of a teen idol, her interest in acting paled in comparison to her love of music. “I hate acting,” she told Rolling Stone in May 2014. “It’s fun, but music has always been first and foremost with me.”

Music Career

Eager to pursue a career in music, Grande recorded vocals for the Victorious soundtrack and started uploading cover songs to YouTube. This caught the attention of Monte Lipman, the president of Republic Records, who signed her to the label in August 2011. Grande released her first single, “Put Your Hearts Up,” that December. The bubblegum pop song sampled the chorus of “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blondes. The corresponding music video, featuring a spray-tanned Grande in a hot pink gown, came out on Valentine’s Day in 2012. Despite this major step in her career, the singer wasn’t a fan of the song, later denouncing it as “inauthentic and fake.” Changing the direction of her music at the label, she began working on songs with a team of songwriters that better reflected her style as an artist.

In August 2013, Grande headlined her first concert tour, The Listening Sessions, and released her debut studio album Yours Truly just weeks later. The pop and R&B record showed a maturing Grande and featured 13 tracks inspired by such musical influences as pop divas Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Christina Aguilera. Receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and fans, Yours Truly immediately hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, making Grande the 15^th female artist to top the chart with a debut album. The lead single, “The Way” featuring the late rapper Mac Miller, was the record’s most popular song.

Ariana Grande Collaborators

The singer scored another No. 1 album with the release of My Everything in August 2014. It became Grande’s first Grammy-nominated album, earning a nod for Best Pop Vocal Album in 2015. That same year, the singer embarked on The Honeymoon Tour, which ran from February to October. Two months later, Grande released her holiday EP, Christmas & Chill, that featured six original tracks. During this time, she became notorious for her iconic high ponytails and oversized sweatshirts.

Grande’s third studio album, Dangerous Woman, was released in May 2016, to much fanfare. The Grammy-nominated album received rave reviews and produced multiple hits, including the title track “Dangerous Woman.” She made music history with the song’s success, becoming the first artist to have the lead singles from her first three albums debut in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.

Capitalizing on the success of her latest album, Grand began her Dangerous Woman tour across North America and Europe in 2017. On May 22, tragedy struck just after Grande finished a concert in Manchester, England. A domestic terrorist detonated a bomb at the exit of the concert hall, killing himself and 22 people while wounding 116, including many young adults and children. The pop star suspended her tour the next day. Grande returned to Manchester 13 days after the attack to perform a benefit concert on June 4 for the bombing victims. She enlisted friends and fellow superstars to perform, including Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams, Oasis’ Liam Gallagher, and Coldplay’s Chris Martin. Before the benefit, Grande visited fans who had been injured in the attack, and she also offered 14,000 free tickets to people who had been at the May 22 concert.

Grande resumed her tour on June 7 in Paris, posting on Instagram: “First show back tonight. Thinking of our angels every step of the way. I love you with all my heart. Grateful for and incredibly proud of my band, dancers and entire crew.” The following year, the singer revealed that she was still feeling the effects of post-traumatic stress from the event. “It’s hard to talk about because so many people have suffered such severe, tremendous loss,” she told British Vogue. “I don’t think I’ll ever know how to talk about it and not cry.”

In August 2018, Grande scored another No. 1 album with the release of the highly anticipated Sweetener. The album’s overall success led to the singer’s first Grammy win, for Best Pop Vocal Album, in February 2019. In total, the singer has earned two Grammys and has received 18 nominations.

Grande quickly returned to the studio to produce her fifth album, Thank U, Next, which arrived in February 2019. The title track hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100—a career first—and was followed by another chart-topper, “7 Rings.”

One month after embarking on her Sweetener World Tour, then-25-year-old Grande demonstrated her drawing power by headlining Coachella in April 2019, becoming the youngest performer to headline the music festival. (Billie Eilish broke that record in 2022 when she was 20.) Grande was also the fourth woman to earn the honor.

While Grande has been on a five-year touring hiatus, she is expected to go on a mini tour to support her Grammy-nominated 2024 album, Eternal Sunshine, but hasn’t yet announced the dates.

Hit Songs

Ever since her single “The Way” came out in 2013, Grande has delivered hit after hit. The pop diva has had a whopping 86 songs land on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including nine No. 1 hits and 22 songs in the top 10.

“Thank U, Next,” her first No. 1 song spent seven weeks at the top of the chart in 2018, while the Grammy-nominated “7 Rings” surpassed that the following year, maintaining the lead spot for eight weeks in a row. The singer scored three more No. 1 hits in 2020 with her Grammy-nominated single “Positions,” her Grammy-winning collaboration with Lady Gaga in “Rain On Me,” and her duet with Justin Bieber on “Stuck With U.”

The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears,” featuring Grande, shot to the top of the chart in 2021, while their collaboration on “Die For You” followed suit two years later. In 2024, she released the No. 1 songs “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” from her album Eternal Sunshine.

Some of Grande’s other hits include “Problem,” “One Last Time,” “34+35,” “Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored,” “No Tears Left To Cry,” “Into You,” and “The Boy Is Mine.”

Albums

Grande’s first studio album Yours Truly was released in August 2013 to overwhelmingly positive reviews. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and is now multiplatinum-certified, like many of her records. Since then, Grande has dropped six more studio albums and two extended plays (Christmas Kisses in 2013 and Christmas & Chill in 2015). Grande has earned six Grammy nominations for Best Pop Vocal Album, winning the category in 2019 for Sweetener. Her latest work, Eternal Sunshine, which came out in March 2024, could also earn this title in 2025.

Movies and TV

Following her success on Nickelodeon, Grande has found a balance between acting and her music career. The popstar has intermittently returned to television through smaller roles and guest appearances. She was part of the first season of Scream Queens in 2015 and starred as Penny Pingleton, Tracy Turnblad’s best friend, in NBC’s Hairspray Live! in December 2016. Four years later, she joined an episode Jim Carrey’s Showtime series Kidding.

Elsewhere, Grande has become a popular host of Saturday Night Live, bringing her musical and acting talents to the show. In one memorable sketch spoofing the streaming service Tidal, the double-threat delivered uncanny impersonations of fellow pop divas Britney Spears, Shakira, Rihanna, Celine Dion, and Whitney Houston. On the big screen, Grande made a cameo in Zoolander 2 (2016) then played a fictional singer in the 2021 apocalyptic film Don’t Look Up.

Her biggest role to date, however, arrived in November 2024 with Wicked. For the two-part movie adaptation of the Broadway musical, Grande stars as Glinda opposite Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba. The story, set in the same universe as L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, follows the two young witches before either encounters Dorothy.

Elsewhere in the World of Oz

Grande, who has been a Wicked fan since childhood and saw the show with the original Broadway cast, underwent several rounds of auditions to win the part originated by Kristin Chenoweth. “This music has always brought such comfort and now being able to spend time with it and be trusted with it is the privilege of a lifetime,” Grande told BBC News.

A week after the first movie released in theaters, it surpassed Grease (1978) to become the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation at the domestic box office in history. Wicked is also one of the best-selling movie musical adaptations on record worldwide, having grossed more than $457 million as of December 10, 2024. Grande’s performance earned her a 2025 Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture.

Wicked Part 2, which was filmed concurrently with the first movie, is scheduled to premiere on November 21, 2025. “If Part 1 is about choices, Part 2 is about consequences,” director Jon M. Chu told Entertainment Weekly. “Choices are difficult to make, but when you do make those choices, sometimes the result isn’t what you expect it to be. It can be lonely, it can be hard.”

Relationships: Boyfriend Ethan Slater

Grande is currently dating theater actor Ethan Slater, who had the lead role in the 2017 production of SpongeBob SquarePants, The Broadway Musical. The performers met on the set of the musical movie Wicked (2024), which began filming in December 2022. Grande stars as Glinda, and Slater portrays one of her classmates, Boq.

While both were married when they first met, Grande and Slater split from their respective partners and started dating each other. Their relationship was made public in July 2023, just days after news of the singer’s separation from her then-husband, real estate agent Dalton Gomez, was leaked. According to legal paperwork, Grande and Gomez had parted ways months earlier, in late February 2023.

Grande’s new boyfriend and the circumstances of how and when they began dating attracted significant media attention. Since then, she and Slater have maintained a relatively private relationship.

Ex-Husband Dalton Gomez

Grande was married to Gomez for about three years. She met the real estate agent while shopping for a new house. The pair was first spotted together in February 2020, and their romance progressed quickly. That December, Grande and Gomez got engaged.

The couple wed five months later, in May 2021, in a private ceremony. Shy of their second wedding anniversary Grande and Gomez separated in early 2023. The singer and actor officially filed for divorce later that year in September. Their divorce was finalized in March 2024.

Pete Davidson, Mac Miller, and More

Before her marriage, the singer was engaged to comedian Pete Davidson, who proposed in June 2018 just weeks after they started dating. Subsequent attention focused on the affectionate social media posts they directed at one another, though the couple found themselves in an awkward position when footage surfaced of Davidson making a joke about the Manchester concert bombing months earlier.

Tragedy struck when Grande’s ex-boyfriend and “The Way” collaborator Mac Miller died from an accidental overdose in September 2018. She was devastated by Miller’s death, a development that seemingly impacted her relationship with Davidson. By October 2018, the singer and SNL star had split.

Grande’s 2019 hit song “Thank U, Next” mentions both Miller and Davidson, as well as her other ex-boyfriends, rapper Big Sean and dancer Ricky Alvarez.

Net Worth

As of October 2024, Grande has an estimated net worth of $230 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. One of the highest paid celebrities, Grande has earned her fortune from her music and concert sales, acting gigs, as well as her line of signature fragrances and her makeup brand, R.E.M. Beauty.

Her wealth and celebrity has allowed her to support various charitable causes including Kids Who Care, a group she co-founded that raises money for charities in the South Florida region. The singer has also cultivated a massive social media presence and twice landed on the Time 100 (in 2016 and 2019), Time magazine’s annual list of influential figures.

Quotes

• I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what. There are ways to compliment someone, or to ignore something that you see that you don’t like, that I think we should help each other work towards. We should aim toward being safer and keeping each other safer.
• I’ve never looked at love as something that I need to complete me. I would like to be complete on my own first and fall in love with somebody who is also complete. You can still celebrate and be totally obsessed with each other, but I want to feel a hundred percent myself so that I can love that person better.
• I never really expected to be taken seriously as an artist, and it’s just been the ultimate, proudest achievement. I’ve dealt with a lot of people not knowing what to expect from me because of my age and my personality. People often mistake my kindness for weakness, and they didn’t expect much from me, because at the end of the day, I’m just a nice Italian girl from Boca.

Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us!