Yahoo News Ariana Grande: Who she is and why she sold out Manchester's MEN Arena
On Monday night, 22,000 people gathered at the MEN Arena in Manchester to see a 23-year-old American pop star perform – Ariana Grande.
When the gig was finished and she had left the stage a suicide bomber detonated a nail bomb in the foyer of the venue. There was 22 fatalities and at least 59 injured – many of them teens and children.
Experts have said that it was the worst terror attack since the 2007 bombings in London and while there is no indication the terrorists were targeting youngsters specifically, Ariana’s fanbase is predominantly made up of teenage girls and children.
It is unclear why ISIS, who claimed responsibility for the attack the following day, chose Ariana’s gig but what is clear is that she’s one of the most prominent young pop stars in the world and the explosion was timed to cause maximum carnage.
So who is she and why is she so popular?
She was born Ariana Grande Betura in Boca Raton, Florida, on June 26 1993 and comes from an Italian family.
Her name was inspired by Princess Oriana in Felix the Cat and her among her first gigs as a child was singing on a cruise ship and playing the title role of Annie in a Broadway musical.
Always very ambitious, she had big plans to produce a RnB album when she was just 14 but it wasn’t until she was 16 that she got her big breakthrough with Nickelodeon. Her role as red-haired Cat Valentine in the high school sitcom Victorious promoted her to teen idol status and the show’s ratings were among the network’s highest.
Despite critics panning Victorious, Ariana was so popular, especially with under-13s, she got her own spin-off show called Sam & Cat but it was a serious music career that she had her eye on.
Her first single Put Your Hearts Up was released in 2011 and wasn’t exactly a success. But Ariana has since joked about it and described the video as ‘straight out of hell’.
Despite her impressive four-octave vocal range it wasn’t until she worked with American rapper Mac Miller, who she also dated, on The Way in 2013 that her music career really took off. She beat both Justin Timberlake and One Direction’s sales figures in March of that year.
Gathering confidence and fine-tuning her style, Ariana then released her debut album Yours Truly, rocketing straight to number one in America and the top ten in nine other countries.
Problem, her 2014 breakthrough single, went to number one in the UK and number two in the US, making Grande a familiar name on both sides of the Atlantic and establishing her as a bonafide pop princess.
Ariana is also a strict vegan and has an older brother Frankie who she is extremely close to and who she says inspired her to get into showbusiness.
What’s her appeal?
Ariana has a relatively wholesome image and despite the short skirts and thigh high boots she has said in interviews before that she ‘doesn’t feel comfortable being sexy’ and doesn’t see herself as a ‘sex symbol’.
Across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook she has a total of 50m followers – showing how powerful social media loving teens are and how her particular brand of soulful pop resonates with that generation perfectly.
Her followers – dubbed Arianators – are also fiercely loyal and when her looks were recently criticised for being too childlike on The Wendy Williams Show they created the hashtag #CancelWendyWilliamsShow which has been tweeted 74,000.
Ariana also comes across very likeable and delighted audiences with her impressions of other celebrities on Saturday Night Live and the Jimmy Fallon show.
She’s also a vocal feminist and advocate of LGBT rights and stopped practising Catholicism during Pope Benedict XVI’s reign because of the church’s stance on homosexuality.
Collaborating with legendary Swedish producer Max Martin – who has worked on major hits for the likes of Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Backstreet Boys – also gave Ariana huge kudos in the music industry. Nearly 40 of Martin’s songs have sold more than a million copies.
An image of a black ribbon topped with bunny ears – one of Ariana’s trademark looks – is trending on Twitter to pay tribute to the victims. It has been retweeted 23k times and liked 35k times.
Read more about the Manchester attack here
Read more about the Manchester terror attack:
Video shows moment concert-goers flee in terror
Eyewitness accounts: ‘There was carnage’
First victim names as Georgina Callander
Mum breaks down during desperate appeal to find daughter
People in Manchester open their homes to help those affected
