All Hail Ariana Grande! The Pop Princess Breaks Four Billboard Records

Say Ariana Grande and most people will probably know who you are talking about. In a short span of two years, she has broken chart records after chart records and her latest single with Lady Gaga, ‘Rain On’, has ridden on the popularity of the two female powerhouses to debut at number-one on the Billboard charts. This means Ariana Grande — at 26 years of age — has chalked up four number-one debut songs, breaking four impressiverecords.

#1 Move over, Mariah Carey. Ariana is now Billboard’s ‘number-one debut’ Queen.

To be the top in ‘number-one debuts’ is a feat, which requires real popularity and talent. Ariana now has four straight-to-the-top hit songs, including ‘thank you, next’, ‘7 Rings’, ‘Stuck With U’ (featuring Justin Bieber) and ‘Rain On Me’ (with Lady Gaga). It isn’t rare to have a song go straight to the top, but to have four? Now, that is extraordinary. She beats Mariah Carey, Drake and Justin Bieber, all of whom have three under their belts.

#2 Move over, erm, again, Mariah Carey. Ariana now holds the record for the shortest interval between ‘number-one debut’ songs.

‘Stuck With U’ and ‘Rain On Me’ were released just 14 days apart, beating the 63-day record previously held by Mariah Carey with ‘Fantasy’ and ‘One Sweet Day’ in 1995. What a triumph. Of course, these two hit songs are also buoyed by the popularity of the collaborators, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga.

#3 Power to the female! ‘Rain On Me’ is the first female duet that has become a number-one debut on the Billboards.

Just halfway through the new year and the western music world has seen three all-female collaborations take the top spot on the charts. Besides Ariana and Lady’s Gaga’s new pop single, the other two are Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj’s ‘Say So’ and ‘Savage’ by Megan Thee Stallion and Beyonce. As a show of strength to the girl power movement, ‘Rain On Me’ is now the first female singers-collaboration to go straight to the top in Billboard’s history.

#4 She’s on the roll! Ariana is the first in music history to score a number-one debut three years in a roll.

Ariana’s went from strength to strength after her first straight-to-the-top hit ‘thank you, next’ in 2018, making her the first artist in Billboard history to have a debut chart-topper for three consecutive years. It was followed by 2019’s ‘7 Rings’ and two in 2020, ‘Stuck With U’ and ‘Rain On Me’. This girl is on fire. She shares the record for having two number-one debuts in a year with Mariah Carey (‘Fantasy’ & ‘One Sweet Day’ in 1995) and Drake (‘God’s Plan’ and ‘Nice For What’ in 2018). All these record-breaking businesses are a testament to Ariana’s huge popularity and top-billing status in the current music world.

Listen to Billboard No. 1 hits on KKBOX.