TBT: The Cheesy Music Vid Ariana Grande Wishes You’d Forget
Today, Ariana Grande sings about sex sprains, ropes in the D on live television, and makes her grandma cringe.
But just a few years ago, our beloved Ari was still trying to break out of the confines of Nickelodeon stardom.
After starring on “Victorious,” Ariana released her debut single, “Put Your Hearts Up.” Although cute and appropriate for a child star whose fans were mostly kids, the song was pretty forgettable.
The music video looked like it was cooked up by a bunch of middle-aged men trying to cook up something teens would like. It featured Ari in a pink prom dress, sashaying around some fake city streets and doing middle-school-talent-show choreography. Frankly, Ari deserved better.
“It was geared toward kids and felt so inauthentic and fake,” Ari told Rolling Stone in 2014. “That was the worst moment of my life. For the video, they gave me a bad spray tan and put me in a princess dress and had me frolic around the street. The whole thing was straight out of hell.”
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In fact, she wishes it could be scrubbed from the internet.
“I still have nightmares about it, she said, “and I made them hide it on my Vevo page.”
Aw, Ari, it’s not that bad! We’d put our heart up for it any day, if we knew WTF that meant.
Thankfully, just a few years after “Put Your Hearts Up” came out, Ariana honed her sound and started releasing music adults could bop to. As Huffington Post’s Matthew Jacobs points out in his exquisite “Ranking of the 33 Greatest Pop Divas’ Debut Singles,” Ari’s first song didn’t even make it to her debut album. Instead, it was replaced with “My Way,” feat. Mac Miller.
Then, in 2015, she was embroiled in the donut-licking, “I hate America” scandal that secured her a place in the hearts of even the most cynical pop culture pundits. She continues to kill it to this day.
So Ariana, don’t worry, we all had to start somewhere. Just think of “Put Your Hearts Up” as your random gap year between Nickelodeon High School and Slaying the Culture University. It might not have gotten you exactly where you wanted to be, but at least it served some purpose.
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Watch the video below, and then maybe cleanse your palate with “Problem.”