Celebrity
Ariana Grande Ariana Grande Begged Scooter Braun Not To Make Her Super Vulnerable Song About Mac Miller’s Death Public And Fans Are Mad On Her Behalf After He Did Anyway Ariana’s 2019 song is so intimate that some fans have admitted to skipping it because listening makes them feel as though they’re invading her privacy. By by Stephanie Soteriou BuzzFeed News Reporter Posted 1 hour ago
Twitter Facebook Link In 2016, three years after they collaborated on their hit song “My Way,” Ariana Grande and
Mac Miller started dating. Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic They were together for two years, and after they split Ariana revealed that she’d spent “years” trying to “support his sobriety” to no avail. While they were unable to make a romantic relationship work, she maintained that she had “unconditional love” for Mac. Instagram: @https://www.instagram.com/arianagrande/?hl=en At the time, she called him one of her “best
Friends in the whole world and favorite people on the planet.” Ariana added: “Unconditional love is not selfish. It is wanting the best for that person even if at the moment, it’s not you.” Kevin Mazur / WireImage The pair remained on good terms up until his death in September 2018, with Mac dying from a drug overdose . In April last year, Ryan Michael Reavis was sentenced to more than 10 years in
prison for supplying the dealer who sold Mac the drugs. David Wolff - Patrick / Redferns via Getty Images Ariana has always been open about how heartbroken she was by Mac’s death. In an
Instagram tribute that was posted soon after the news broke, she wrote: “i adored you from the day i met you when i was nineteen and i always will.” View this photo on Instagram Instagram: @arianagrande “i can’t believe you aren’t here anymore. i really can’t wrap my head around it,” she went on. “we talked about this. so many times. i’m so mad, i’m so sad i don’t know what to do. you were my dearest friend. for so long. above anything else. i’m so sorry i couldn’t fix or take your pain away. i really wanted to.” GC Images Describing Mac, Ariana added: “the kindest, sweetest soul with demons he never deserved. i hope you’re okay now. rest.”
Chelsea Lauren / WireImage In an interview with
Vogue almost a year after Mac died, Ariana said: “He was the best person ever, and he didn’t deserve the demons he had. I was the glue for such a long time, and I found myself becoming... less and less sticky. The pieces just started to float away.” Eduardo Munoz / Reuters And the star has been sure to keep the rapper’s memory alive through her projects ever since, with sweet tributes to him found in both her makeup range and
music .
NBC / NBCU Photo Bank / NBCUniversal via Getty Images In November 2018, just two months after Mac’s death, Ariana name-checked him in her hit single “Thank U, Next,” using his legal name Malcolm McCormick. View this photo on Instagram Instagram: @arianagrande Reflecting on her past lovers, Ariana sings: “Wish I could say ‘thank you’ to Malcolm / ‘Cause he was an angel.” azlyrics.com Fans spotted more references to Mac when she released her album, Thank U, Next , in February 2019, with many listeners particularly taken aback by Ariana’s vulnerability in the eighth track , “Ghostin.” View this photo on Instagram Instagram: @arianagrande This heartbreaking song details the complicated feelings that Ariana had as she grieved for Mac while in a relationship with
Pete Davidson. Kevin Mazur / WireImage Ariana and Pete started dating in May 2018, but split in October that same year as she struggled to cope with her loss. Raymond Hall / GC Images Pete later revealed in an interview with Charlamagne tha God that he knew his and Ariana’s relationship was over as soon as he heard about Mac’s passing.
USA TODAY Sports The comic said that he supported her as best as he could up until the moment she no longer wanted him around. Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for
American Express “I think I said, ‘I’ll be here until you don’t want me to be here,” Pete recalled at the time. “I pretty much knew it was around over after that. That was really horrible, and I can’t imagine what that shit is like. All I do know is that she really loved the shit out of him, and she wasn’t putting on a show or anything.” Gotham / GC Images And Ariana acknowledges this in “Ghostin,” where she praises Pete for being “so understanding” and supportive in the situation as she admits that she knows that it hurts him when she continuously cries about her ex. azlyrics.com Elsewhere, she sings: “I know you hear me when I cry / I try to hold it in the night / While you're sleepin' next to me / But it's your arms that I need this time.” Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images Later in the song, Ariana confesses that she wishes Mac was with her instead of Pete, but she doesn’t want Pete to know that. azlyrics.com Soon after “Ghostin” was released on her album, Ariana admitted in an interview that she really didn’t want it to be made public. View this photo on Instagram Instagram: @arianagrande In fact, the star said that she was “begging” her manager, Scooter Braun, to take it off the tracklist because it is so emotional and personal to her. Chelsea Lauren / Getty Images for DCP During her 2019 appearance on the Zach Sang Show , Ariana said of “Ghostin”: “It was a lot. It was too much, actually. I was literally begging Scooter to take it off. And he was like: ‘You're thinking too hard now. This is special and you should share it with everybody.’” Zach Sang Show “And I was like: ‘I’m just gonna let go,’” the
Singer added. “I wanted to take a couple of things off the album. But I ended up just keeping most of them.” Zach Sang Show This interview recently resurfaced on TikTok, and fans have been left outraged by the fact that she was forced into releasing such an intimate and vulnerable song to the world. @positionswb i hate him so much, shouldve kept him fired. @arianagrande @r.e.m.beauty #arianagrande #arianagrandebutera #arianagrandebuteragomez #wicked #wickedthemusical #glindathegoodwitch #glinda #rembeauty #positions #thankunext #sweetener #sweeetenertour #sweetenerworldtour #dangerouswoman #dangerouswomantour #dangerouswomandiaries #myeverything #honeymoontour #honeymoondiaries #yourstruly #arianators #arianator #arianagrandeinterview #arianagrandeimpression #arianafan #agb #arianagrandeperfume #modvanilla #modblush #cloudintense #godisawoman #rem #thankunext #thankunext20 #cloud #moonlight #sweetlikecandy #sweetlikecandylimitededition #ari #frankie #positionswb #fyp #foryou #foryoupage ♬ original sound - nickiana Some admitted that they can’t even listen to “Ghostin” because it feels too invasive, and they accused Scooter of being “disrespectful” and taking advantage of Ariana’s trauma. View this photo on Instagram Instagram: @arianagrande “Beautiful song but scooter is the worst for pushing her to keep it on the album when she didn’t want to,” one person commented. Another agreed: “I feel so bad for her. ghostin is so beautiful and special but the meaning is sad and personal. I hate pushy people like scooter.” tiktok.com tiktok.com Someone else added: “Ghostin is one of my fav songs like I love it sm but he should’ve taken it off, like that’s wrong and so disrespectful of him.” tiktok.com One more echoed: “I love ghostin but I feel like if someone doesn’t wanna release something that personal they shouldn’t have to.” tiktok.com “it feels so personal and intimate bc it literally felt like she let us read her journal or something,” someone else said of the song. Another comment read: “It gets me so mad that he did that, you can hear the pain in the song.” tiktok.com tiktok.com One fan admitted: “I always skip this song bc it felt too personal and I felt like I invaded het privacy listening to ghostin :(“ tiktok.com “She was traumatized and he took advantage of it to sell records,” one more said of Scooter. Another agreed: “Hope she leaves him and finds someone who has her mental health as their best interest, scooter capitalized of her trauma.” tiktok.com tiktok.com Ariana has worked with Scooter since she signed to his management company in 2013, and by 2016 he was handling every aspect of her career. Kevin Mazur / WireImage But in 2019 it was revealed that Ariana had fired him for six months after he apparently overstepped the mark in her personal life. Kevin Mazur / WireImage A source told US weekly at the time: “He definitely gets involved in his clients’ business and personal relationships. At one point, Ariana fired him because she had had it.” Vivien Killilea / Getty Images for Homecoming Weekend Scooter addressed this and his and Ariana’s subsequent reconciliation in an interview with Variety , where he blamed one of Ariana’s boyfriends for him losing his
Job. Danny Moloshok / Reuters While he did not reveal their identity, he said: “When shitty boyfriends leave, she starts to see the light on some stuff, and one day I got a phone call.” Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images “I went over there and we had a very honest conversation. Where it made me a better manager,” Scooter went on. “Number one, it allowed me to know that I can be fired — I had never been fired before.” Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for AG Ariana is currently working on the movie adaptation of the musical Wicked , which is due to be released next year. More on this A Viral TikTok Just Broke Down Exactly How Ariana Grande Appeared To Subtly Honor Her Late Ex Mac Miller With Her New Makeup Line Leyla Mohammed · Aug. 3, 2022 Ariana Grande Responded To Someone Who Accused Her Of Dumping Mac Miller For Another Man Ben Henry · May 23, 2018 Ariana Grande Posted An Emotional Tribute To Mac Miller On
Thanksgiving Ellie Bate · Nov. 23, 2018 Ariana Grande's New Song Is Probably About Mac Miller, So Here Are All The References Ellie Woodward · Dec. 14, 2018 Topics in this article Ariana Grande Mac Miller Scooter Braun Stephanie Soteriou BuzzFeed News Reporter Stephanie Soteriou is a Celebrity Reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in
London Contact Stephanie Soteriou at stephanie.soteriou@buzzfeed.com . Got a confidential tip? 👉 Submit it here