Ariana Grande has had a pretty grand year. Just when 2015 was about to end, she moved to a new manager (away from her mom) and with a new team around her, she got bigger than ever. She’s attempted to show a more mature side of he, but we just had a discussion about her at the office and we still think she’s a teen idol who will have a lot of really young girls go to her shows in Amsterdam next year. It will take time before we will stop underestimating her.
Vocally, everybody knows the girl can sing, even though probably only half of us can make out what exactly she is singing. It’s no biggie to understand why so many people are keen on working with her.
Last year, she worked with Andrea Bocelli on “E Più Ti Penso”, a cover for his “Cinema” album. The duet is surprisingly good. It’s always a bit tricky to have classic vocals with pop vocals. Intonation is quite different, technique usually is very different, but Ariana’s way of singing found its place pretty easily in this song. Her ability to switch from a powerful vocal to super soft and sensitive, gives this song that little bit of extra that, I’m sure, Andrea was looking for.
A year later, Stevie Wonder turned out to be next in line to work with Ariana. Not a bad singing partner to have at all. He’s a real living legend.
The two were paired up for the soundtrack of the movie “Sing”, which will feature a whopping total of 85 cover songs. Stevie and Ariana have recorded the only original song this movie will feature. The song is called “Faith” and has just been out for a couple of days to a pretty good reception by the press. The cool thing about this song is that it not your typical Stevie Wonder song – In fact, if I didn’t know it was him singing on it, I probably wouldn’t have recognized him right away. It’s not your average Ariana Grande song either. With both of them slightly out of their comfort song, this song is really a great addition to both their catalogs. And the song has worked out really good.
Altogether, movie soundtracks have been keeping Ariana pretty busy, because she’s also featured on the soundtrack for “Trolls”, which was released earlier this year. You would almost forget that Ariana is an actress herself and she has announced that she will concentrate more on acting in 2017 instead of her music. Hmm, pretty ambitious with the world tour that is already planned.
