Music Rewind 2024: Ariana Grande Changed Us ‘For Good’

Pop music is nonexistent without the presence of Ariana Grande, and boy did she bring pop back this year! Going into 2024, Ariana fans were hoping that new music would be on the way, and their wishes came true in early March. Not only did she release her best album to date, she also gave us the performance of a lifetime in Wicked. Here’s (almost) everything Ariana Grande achieved in 2024, and the moments we are most proud of her for!

Eternal Sunshine & Album Anniversaries

One of our favorite albums of the year, eternal sunshine, made its grand appearance in March of 2024. The album is 35 minutes and 32 seconds of pure bliss, welcoming fans into Ariana’s deepest personal stories. The first single, ‘yes, and?,’ completely dominated pop charts and gave us a sneak peek into what we’d be hearing on the new album. After many listens and cry sessions, THP’s favorite tracks were ‘eternal sunshine,’ ‘i wish i hated you,’ and ‘supernatural.’ 

Up next? Music videos! If there is one thing Ariana Grande can do flawlessly, it’s give us music videos with full plots, special guests, and lovable characters. After the ‘yes, and?’ music video dropped, we were gifted with visualizers for ‘the boy is mine’ and ‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love,)’ and ‘ouch, that one hurt.’ Which music video from the eternal sunshine era was your favorite?

Fans didn’t have to wait long for the (slightly) deluxe album to drop, which featured our fave pop boy Troye Sivan, OG ‘the boy is mine’ singers, Brandy and Monica, and Christmas queen Mariah Carey. Ariana fans were fed through and through! But, that didn’t stop her from giving us more. Any Ariana fan will tell you that her live vocals will dominate any other singer, and the live performances of the tracks on eternal sunshine were no different. Our favorites? ‘intro (end of the world)’ and ‘imperfect for you.’ 

Even though fans were celebrating the success of , they were about to be transported back to 2014. Ariana’s second studio album, My Everything, celebrated it’s ten-year anniversary this year! In celebration, Ariana did what we never thought was possible, release two vault tracks from the original album. Fans tuned into ‘Cadillac Song’ and ‘Too Close’ while also shopping new merch and honoring their favorite moments from the cat-ear era! 

Saturday Night Live

Yes, Ariana’s performance on SNL this year is getting its own shoutout. Here at the hive we’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for Ariana to get on SNL. This time, she hosted and performed, which was everything our musical comedy hearts could want! As expected, she completely crushed it and made SNL history with her hilarious skits. 

She also gave us two stunning performances of ‘imperfect for you’ and ‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love)’ that will live rent-free in our minds forever.

Wickedly Amazing Acting 

The moment we’ve all been waiting for. When Ariana announced she’d secured the role of Glinda in John M. Chu’s Wicked, the world went ballistic. The anticipation for Friday, November 22, 2024, was undeniable, and when the day finally came, it didn’t feel real. Were we really going to finally be seeing Ariana up on the big screen? Our fangirl hearts couldn’t believe it and by the time we were walking out of the movie theater, we were sobbing because of how proud of Ariana we were for achieving her dreams. Have you had a chance to catch Wicked in theaters yet?

We were also sobbing because of how beautiful Ariana’s vocals were in the movie! The Wicked soundtrack will go down in history as one of the best movie musical soundtracks ever made, and we’ll be right there streaming all our favorite songs from ‘What Is This Feeling?’ to ‘One Short Day.’ We weren’t the only ones who agreed that Ariana’s performance was beyond stellar. As of a few days ago, Ariana has been nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Glinda!

Viral Internet Moments

We’re forever holding space for Wicked’s iconic press tour. So many viral internet moments came from this tour including “that’s my line,” “holding space,” Cynthia Erivo’s ‘Deying Gravity’ run, and of course, our dearest Munckin friend, Boq.

We can’t talk about the success of Wicked without mentioning the press tour! Each interview was more iconic than the last, but we loved Ariana’s fashion choices even more. Ariana’s subtle nods to the original Wizard of Oz movie, with blue and white gingham dresses and her pink ballgown silhouettes, had us giving major heart-eyes each time she stepped out on the red carpet.

Did you love eternal sunshine and Wicked as much as we did? Let us know all your thoughts about Ariana’s year in the comments below or by buzzing with us over on Twitter, @thehoneypop, Facebook, and Instagram 🐝

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