No longer just a nominee! Ariana Grande won her first-ever Grammy Award ahead of the 61st annual ceremony on Sunday, February 10. During the pre-show, the pop star’s Sweetener took home Best Pop Vocal Album, beating out Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes’ self-titled records, Kelly Clarkson’s Meaning of Life, Pink’s Beautiful Trauma and Taylor Swift’s Reputation.
Grande, 25, was nominated for two awards this year, but her song “God Is a Woman” lost in the Best Pop Solo Performance category to Lady Gaga’s “Joanne (Where Do You Think You’re Goin’?).”
After the announcement, the “7 Rings” singer tweeted, “I know i’m not there tonight (trust, i tried and still truly wished it had worked out tbh) and i know i said i try not to put too much weight into these things …. but f–k ……. this is wild and beautiful. thank you so much.”
The win comes three days after she made headlines for slamming longtime Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich, who claimed in an interview with the Associated Press that Grande would not perform at the awards show because she “felt it was too late for her to pull something together.”
“I’ve kept my mouth shut but now you’re lying about me,” she fired back on Twitter on Thursday, February 7. “I can pull together a performance over night and you know that, Ken. it was when my creativity & self expression was stifled by you, that i decided not to attend. i hope the show is exactly what you want it to be and more.”
Grande added, “I offered 3 different songs. it’s about collaboration. it’s about feeling supported. it’s about art and honesty. not politics. not doing favors or playing games. it’s just a game y’all.. and i’m sorry but that’s not what music is to me.”
The day before the Grammys, Ehrlich told Rolling Stone that he saw the Victorious alum’s tweets and called them “a surprise.” He said he was most “bothered” by her assertion that he is “not collaborative.”
Grande released Sweetener, which included the singles “No Tears Left to Cry” and “Breathin,” in August 2018 in the midst of her whirlwind engagement to Pete Davidson. After the couple called it quits two months later, the songstress returned to the recording studio and made her fifth album, Thank U, Next, which dropped on Friday, February 8.
Hosted by Alicia Keys, the 2019 Grammy Awards air live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on CBS Sunday, February 10, at 8 p.m. ET.
