101 Amazing Facts About Ariana Grande 3f2z46

Title Page

101 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT ARIANA GRANDE

Jack Goldstein

& Frankie Taylor

Unofficial & Unauthorised

Publisher Information

Published in 2014 by Andrews UK Limited www.andrewsuk.com

The rights of Jack Goldstein and Frankie Taylor to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998

Copyright © 2015 Jack Goldstein & Frankie Taylor

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

All facts contained within this book have been researched from reputable sources. If any information is found to be false, please the publishers, who will be happy to make corrections for future editions.

Introduction

Are you the world’s biggest Ariana Grande fan? Or do you want to find out everything there is to know about the actress, singer and songwriter? If so, then this is the book for you! Contained within are over one hundred facts about Ariana, from her childhood and first acting roles through to her emergence as a world-renowned singer with a vocal range to rival Mariah Carey. The book is easily organised into sections so you can find the information you want fast… and is an unmissable addition to any fan’s bookshelf!

Follow Jack Goldstein on Twitter @GoldsteinBooks

Visit Goldstein Books at www.jackgoldsteinbooks.com

The Basics

Ariana’s full name is Ariana Grande-Butera.

She was born on the 26th of June 1993.

This means that her star sign is Cancer. Typical Cancerians are said to be emotional, yet often displaying a hard, unmoving exterior; their ambitions are supposedly love and money!

Ariana was born in Boca Raton, a city in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Her mother’s name is Joan Grande; she is the CEO of a communications and alarm systems company.

Her father’s name is Edward; he owns a graphic design company.

Ariana’s parents sadly split up when she was just eight years old.

Ariana is of Italian descent; in her words, half Sicilian (from the large island to the south of the country) and half Abruzzese (from a region in southern Italy).

Her older brother Frankie is a well-known actor, dancer and producer.

Ariana is best known today as a singer, songwriter and actress.

Younger Years

When she was very young, Ariana ed the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theater. Her talents were recognised right away, and she was given the lead role in a performance of musical Annie in addition to other singing parts in other group productions such as Beauty and the Beast and The Wizard of Oz.

Ariana’s TV debut was in fact singing the national anthem at the start of a televised game for Ice Hockey team the Florida Panthers.

Of course, Ariana’s education didn’t suffer despite her early success; she grew up a pretty normal girl, attending Pine Crest School, and later North Broward Prep School.

She faced a difficult situation at the age of fifteen when she auditioned for the part of Charlotte in the Broadway Musical 13 - and won; she couldn’t say ‘no’ to such an amazing opportunity, but didn’t want to just drop out of school. Thankfully, North Broward allowed her to continue to be enrolled whilst she was starring in the show and sent her school material so she could study privately with tutors.

A year later, in 2009, Ariana auditioned for an Nickelodeon show by the name of Victorious. This was to be her biggest break yet; amazingly both she and her 13 co-star Elizabeth Gillies were chosen to make the cast; Ariana in the ‘positive’ role of Cat Valentine, and Elizabeth as ‘mean’ Jade West.

Whilst filming the show, Ariana had to have her hair dyed red every fortnight as

the producers felt that the colour would suit Cat’s character - and they didn’t want the entire cast to be brunettes, despite the fact that they were naturally.

The Premiere of Victorious was watched by almost 6 million people - the second highest audience ever for a live-action show on the channel. This propelled Ariana right into the middle of the spotlight where she has remained ever since.

Despite reaching the stellar heights of a small-screen teen idol, Ariana hadn’t yet achieved her true goal - to be known as a singer. She had always felt that acting was fun, but it was a career in music that she felt was her true goal.

After completing filming on the first series of Victorious, Ariana began working with Eric Vetro, a vocal coach who counted the likes of Katy Perry amongst his previous pupils. As her voice developed, she ed YouTube videos of herself singing cover versions of songs by female powerhouses such as Adele, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

When a friend of the CEO of Republic Records came across these videos, Ariana was quickly signed up to a recording contract. Work was begun on an album with a very pop-focused sound, squarely aimed at a young teenage audience. The music had a strong ‘bubblegum pop’ feel, and Ariana did not necessarily feel it was the direction in which she wanted her career to go. One single from this period was released however - Put Your Hearts Up.

Did You Know?

You’re quite likely to come across Ariana at Universal Studios’ annual Halloween Horror Nights; she’s a big fan and tries to attend every year.

Ariana is a big hockey fan, attending every home game the Florida Panthers played. However, things didn’t always go well - she says she has been hit by a stray hockey puck on more than one occasion!

Amongst other things, Ariana is allergic to cats, shellfish and bananas.

Encouraged by advice from her grandmother, Ariana actually prefers to sleep naked than wear nightclothes of any description!

Ariana has three tattoos; perhaps the most prominent of these is the word bellissima on her left side. If you’re wondering to what this refers, it is actually the special name that Ariana’s grandfather used for her. Aww.

Ariana has no less than four pet dogs (at the time of writing) - and of course, they’re all tiny breeds! Their names are Ophelia, Coco, Toulouse, and Fawkes.

She has bad eyesight and as a result has to wear lenses.

Although she is very much a fashionista, Ariana says that she prefers people to listen to her music than to judge her on what she wears; despite always looking fantastic, she says she is not actually always confident in her choice of what to wear.

Ariana actually refers to her grandmother as Nonna - a traditional word that is generally used by Italians rather than granny or gran.

Coco, one of Ariana’s dogs, actually has his own Twitter . Yes, seriously. It’s @MissCocoGrande.

Music

When her second album went straight in at number one, Ariana became the first female since Susan Boyle to have her first to albums achieve this. In fact, those two - along with LeAnn Rimes - are the only ladies ever to have this happen to two albums within 12 months.

In response to a question asked of her about musical influences, Ariana confessed that the eras that most inspire her are the 50s and 60s, and acts such as the Shangri-Las and the Chiffons. Her reasoning is that it was a more innocent time, and songs were about love and romance, and not getting drunk and going home with someone random!

The artist that Ariana is most often compared to by critics is Mariah Carey; the two have a similarly impressive vocal range.

Ariana is managed by Scooter Braun. If that name sounds familiar, it should do he’s also the man responsible for Justin Bieber!

Ariana teamed up with some pretty famous songwriters for her second album. Notably, track A Little Bit Of Your Heart was actually penned specifically for Ariana by none other than heart throb Harry Styles.

One of Ariana’s songs drew heavily on her personal experience; as she explained it is about a boy who cheats on a girl - but actually with another boy. Although she has never gone into details, she did it that she was ‘99.9% sure’ this had happened to her in a previous relationship.

In July 2014, Ariana teamed up with fellow megastars Jessie J and Nicki Minaj to release the highly successful track Bang Bang. Featured on the deluxe version of My Everything, the song was praised by critics and fans alike, and was even nominated for a Grammy award.

It is very much worth visiting Ariana’s YouTube channel osnapitzari where she regularly posts her awesome covers of popular songs, alongside other interesting videos.

In addition to the piano, Ariana can play another instrument - and we bet you can’t guess what it is. Time’s up - it is the French horn!

Within 24 hours of its release, Ariana’s second album, My Everything, had gone to number one in 76 different countries. Wow.

General Facts

You can visit Ariana’s official website at arianagrande.com

She also has over 24 million twitter followers. You can them @arianagrande

Ariana is recognised as a trailblazer in technology; she was one of the first stars to truly recognise the power of connecting with her fans on social media. Nowadays, everyone has a twitter, Instagram (or whatever the latest trend happens to be), but Ariana saw this right at the start, in a time when most pop acts had a team of people working on their public image, and didn’t do anything to speak directly with their fans.

Pretty much everyone who has worked with Ariana has agreed that she is both a workaholic and a perfectionist.

Although she is classed as a brunette, Ariana’s natural hair colour is so dark that you could mistake it for black.

If you look through photos of Ariana smiling, you might notice that she only has a dimple of her left cheek and not the right!

Ariana is definitely a keep-fit fanatic. One of her favourite things to do is to jog from her house to the famous Hollywood sign up on the hills - she reckons it is great fun and that the view is just amazing.

In 2014 there were rumours that Ariana had undergone not one but two surgical procedures - a nose job and a lip injection. Well-known celebrity bloggers such as Perez Hilton posed the question as to whether Ariana had undergone medical operations to change her looks. However, Ariana and her people have never confirmed the rumours, so perhaps her change in looks over the years is down to a healthy lifestyle and fantastic beauty regime.

Ariana’s first ever full world tour was organised to start in February 2015. Called the Honeymoon Tour, it kicks off on the 25th in Independence, Missouri, and makes its way across America, Canada and Europe before ending up in Asia.

Although she’s an absolute power-house vocalist, Ariana is just five feet tall that’s only just over 150cm!

Relationships

Ariana met boyfriend of three years Graham Philips on the set of the musical 13. She once described him as one of the favourite people in her life. Neither party commented on the reason behind their split but shortly after Ariana went on tour - so perhaps the dreaded celebrity curse of long distance was to blame?

After Graham, Ari dated backup dancer Jordan Viscomi. Although their relationship was only brief, she has described the breakup as ‘horrible’ and ‘horrendous’. So what happened? Well, whilst some rumours suggested that she was text cheating with future boyfriend Jai Brooks, others thought that Jordan was only using Ariana to up his own profile… we think the latter actions are more likely to warrant a heartbreak as described, don’t you?

Ariana and Jai Brooks - member of Australian YouTube group The Janoskians first officially stated dating back in August 2012 before a brief split in 2013, during which time she began dating The Wanted’s Nathan Sykes…

…whom she had reportedly even started dating whilst still with Jai - well, that’s what he claims anyway. Though their relationship only lasted for around four months, the two seemed pretty loved up, with Ariana even meeting his parents! She confessed she was very nervous as she wanted them to like her… erm, who wouldn’t?! Nathan also itted he couldn’t quite believe his luck after bagging himself such a gorgeous girlfriend. We had high hopes for one of celeb land’s cutest couples but sadly it appears that distance and work commitments were once again to blame and the two sadly parted ways - mutually of course - and they still remain great friends.

After The Wanted announced a hiatus in January 2014, Nathan has been focused on his solo career. Speaking to The Sun, a British newspaper, Nathan discussed a particularly emotional track which could be a reference to an ex-girlfriend - i.e. Ariana. Sykes went on to say ‘it’s important not to be selfish with writing so there’s no detailed version of events and there’s no bad blood. She’s a lovely girl… we split because of the long-distance thing. There was an amazing moment at the start of the relationship where we both convinced ourselves [that long distance would work] but it was impossible.’

Fast forward to May 2014… Ariana and Jai are seen embroiled in a ionate kiss backstage at the iHeartRadio awards in Los Angeles. Unfortunately for the pair, the reconciliation was short and far from sweet; they called it quits when Ariana felt like she needed him the most (during the ing of her Granddad) and he was reportedly nowhere to be seen. Ariana posted a heartfelt cryptic message to Twitter which we will summarise: she thanked those that had helped her through such a difficult time and stated those that weren’t there for her really broke her heart - we guess that’d be Jai. Speaking later of the break-up she said ‘a lot of coconut bliss ice cream and snuggling with your best friends’ was the way to mend a broken heart. We won’t bore you with Jai’s comments on the break-up…!

Now let’s talk about that Justin Bieber kiss photo that sent Twitter into overdrive with over twenty seven thousand retweets within just three hours! The whole thing started when fans of both Justin and Ariana trended #Justinandarianaselfie, and not one to let her Arianators down, the beautiful actress turned singer did just that. However, She knew how much drama could come from something as small as a picture and was therefore initially reluctant to post it. With a little push from Biebs however, up it went… but only for a short amount of time! As she had predicted, the comments and drama just flooded in. At the time Ariana was still dating Jai Brooks, and many fans were concerned that maybe their relationship was on the rocks! But she took to Twitter to clarify things: ‘Everyone, girls are allowed to be friends with guys. I’m a lady. Chill out.’ Although… wouldn’t they make a cute couple?!

Ariana finally confirmed her relationship with long-term friend and rapper Big Sean - real name Sean Anderson - in October 2014 after relationship rumours had begun when the two of them recorded Best Mistake, a track from her second album My Everything. She has since described Sean as one of the most amazing men she has met - up there with her Granddad and brother… aww.

Big Sean was previously engaged to Glee star Naya Rivera (Santana Lopez) but the pair called off the engagement when reportedly Sean could take no more of her anger and jealousy; Naya supposedly accused Sean of cheating on her with Ariana before the pair even split. Yet just three months after their split, Naya secretly wed good friend and actor Ryan Dorsey… and on the same date she and Sean were due to tie the knot - ouch! Despite the drama with his ex (she has even accused him of stealing her Rolex watch, something he strongly denies) Sean appears to think the world of Ari, and has already put a few nasty rumours to bed, such as her supposed demands to be carried everywhere; Sean says that he was with her once when this happened - and she was only being carried because she had cut her foot whilst dancing.

Shocking ‘news’ surfaced in early January 2015 that Ari had found ‘sexting’ messages to a well-known Instagram model on Sean’s phone - and had allegedly dumped the rapper and refused to take his calls. Reps from both sides have dismissed the reports as 100% not true and Sean is totally smitten. There was even a suggestion that a future proposal may well be on the cards.

The Amazing Ariana

Ariana has always been a caring soul; even when she was growing up she was thinking of how to help other people not as fortunate as herself. Because of this, at the age of just ten she founded a singing group called Kids Who Care, who perform in order to raise money for charitable causes.

Ariana loves the ocean, and finds the number and variety of amazing creatures it contains fascinating.

Wearing high heels feels so natural to Ariana that when she doesn’t have anything on her feet, she still walks around on her tiptoes!

One trait that Ariana says she definitely doesn’t get from her mother is her love of baking. She says that as the CEO of a large company, her mom is a ‘badass independent woman’, but is certainly not the stay-at-home cookies-in-the-oven type!

Arian’s best friend is Alexa Luria. Interesting fact about Alexa? She was born on Christmas Day, 1993.

If you’re easily offended, you might want to cover your ears if you meet Ariana she its to cursing quite often, saying she has a ‘sailor’s mouth’!

One particular campaign that Ariana has been closely involved with is that

against online bullying. In 2013 she teamed up alongside Bridgit Mendler and Kat Graham for Seventeen Magazine’s anti-bullying initiative Delete Digital Drama.

She also works hard in of the fight against cancer; notably in September 2014 Ariana performed My Everything for the Stand Up to Cancer TV event, dedicating the song to her grandfather who died from the disease earlier in the year.

Ariana points out that people are often surprised by what she’s like in real life; she says she believes this is because the character she played on TV was such a ‘goody-two-shoes’ and people expect her to be like that in the flesh!

When she was just three years old, Ariana had her first celebrity crush… on Justin Timberlake!

Likes and Dislikes

Ariana’s favourite colour is lavender.

She is a big fan of the Harry Potter books, and its to reading as often as she can.

When it comes to downtime, there’s nothing Ariana enjoys more than a long game of Monopoly. Despite the fact that her games can often go on for hours, she says she never gets sick of it.

Ariana’s favourite artists of all time are Imogen Heap, Madonna and India.Arie.

Meditation is definitely a daily ritual that Ariana undertakes. She says that is helps her cope with the stresses of being a celebrity - hectic schedules and always having to be at your best can take a heavy toll on mind and spirit, so time spent contemplating and looking inwards can often give the perfect balance.

Ariana just loves watching horror movies, and can’t get enough of flicks like the Paranormal Activity series.

In fact, she’s a big fan of Halloween in general. When she was young, Ariana used to wear scary masks around the house; so much so that her mum suggested she might grow up to be a serial killer!

Despite her love of horror films however, her favourite film is actually the Jim Carey comedy Bruce Almighty.

Although she is absolutely terrified of heights, Ariana says she cannot resist going on every rollercoaster she sees - and loves the experience.

You can often find Ariana visiting the beach at night - she loves how quiet and serene it is.

Interesting Facts

Ariana suffers from hypoglycaemia; this means that her blood sugar levels can become too low, and one of the most common ways to overcome this problem is to eat a snack rich in carbohydrates, quickly bringing the level back up to where it should be. This was exactly what Ariana did in class once.. but her teacher (who didn’t understand her medical condition) actually put her in detention! Not long after this, she left the school and took private tuition instead.

The Los Angeles house into which Ariana moved after making it big is over 100 years old, and was previously occupied by award-winning film director Francis Ford Coppola.

At the start of 2015 it was announced that Ariana was to headline the halftime show at the NBA All-Star game in New York. This particular achievement means that Ariana follows in the footsteps of many other great artists, including her idols Beyoncé and Mariah Carey.

As a fan of 50s music culture, it is obvious that Ariana will often wear clothes with the era’s influence. In fact, many of her outfits reflecting that style are made by Kenley Collins, a designer who came to prominence after featuring on TV show Project Runway.

Whereas some stars today criticise Madonna and even refer to her as a ‘has been’, Ariana is a huge fan. She has gone on record to say that a collaboration with Madonna would be so good that her ‘heart would stop’, and describes her in gushing : ‘She is strength, she is freedom, she is wisdom beyond anybody’s comprehension.’ High praise indeed!

Ariana has itted that sometimes she rehearses with her back-up dancers even when there’s no show booked - she does it just for the company!

When Pottermore’s sorting hat came to choose Ariana’s fate, which house do you think she was chosen for? If - like Draco Malfoy actor Tom Felton - you guessed Gryffindor, you’d be wrong… It was in fact Slytherin! Don’t be too surprised though; Slytherin is known for housing the most ambitious students, and that is certainly a characteristic that Ariana has in huge amounts.

When Ariana sang on the runway at a Victoria’s Secret fashion show, things didn’t all go exactly to plan - she was hit in the face by an ‘angel wing’ that one of the models was wearing!

Ariana once said that she was ‘repulsed’ by Santa. Her reasoning? She explained that her heart had been broken multiple times over the festive period, and was basically saying ‘what is your deal, bro?’!

In late 2014, Bette Midler - the singer perhaps most famous for Wind Beneath My Wings - criticised Ariana’s ‘raunchy’ and ‘sexual’ performances. This came as a surprise to Ariana, who was quite shocked and upset by the criticism… especially as the 68-year old had done almost exactly the same when on stage in the 1970s!

The Most Amazing Facts

Ever wondered how Ariana’s parents chose her name? They were actually big fans of Felix the Cat, and in the film there is a character called Princess Oriana. They took inspiration from that, changing the ‘O’ to an ‘A’ and that was that!

Ariana is now 100% vegan and tries to eat only organically-farmed produce. She hasn’t always been that way though; when she was growing up, Ariana did used to eat fish!

One of the things that spurred Ariana on when she was younger was when superstar singer Gloria Estefan heard her perform… and told her she’d be famous one day if she carried on singing like that. How right she was!

There was actually a pretty good reason behind Ariana’s iconic ponytail hairstyle. Because she had to dye her hair so often for her Nickelodeon shows, Ariana actually suffered from unexpected hair loss (OMG!) and wearing extensions in a ponytail was a good way to cover it up whilst it re-grew!

Although she was raised a Roman Catholic, Ariana fell out of love with the religion after she looked into it further. When she realised that the Pope declared that homosexuality was a sin, and that women forced into prostitution were evil, she decided she no longer wanted to be a part of that set-up. She has since decided to follow the teachings of Kabbalah, in which a central belief is that if you do good to others, others will do good to you.

Whereas most people don’t even get to meet with the President of the United

States of America even once in their lives, Ariana has actually performed for Barack Obama on multiple occasions; notably in 2014 she sang at the annual White House Easter Egg roll!

At some point in 2013, Ariana decided that she no longer wanted to have anything to do with her father. Although she hasn’t gone into detail about the reasons why, she has itted that she struggled with the decision for a long time - and that as many of her traits directly reflect those of her father’s, she found that very hard to accept.

Whereas most five-year-olds were into cutesy animations and Disney, Ariana had slightly different tastes. For her fifth birthday party, she went with a Jaws theme. Considering that when it came out in the 1970s, the film had an 18+ certificate, it is probably no surprise to learn that the other kids ran away from the party screaming..

Ariana says that she loves making spontaneous 3am trips to the pharmacy. For non-US readers, perhaps we should clarify… this doesn’t mean that she is looking for drugs! In America, pharmacies are basically shops that sell a wide range of groceries and other goods, and tend to stay open 24 hours a day - hence them being perfect for a visit in the middle of the night when you suddenly decide you really fancy something for that midnight hunger, but don’t have what you want in the house!

When she was filming the first season of Victorious, Ariana went through a really difficult break up. It was so bad that she couldn’t stop crying, and found it incredibly hard to pull herself together. However, the actual character of Cat was so positive, it was playing her that actually helped Ariana get over the emotional trauma she was going through. In Ariana’s words, Cat is so high on life and nothing makes her sad, so playing someone like that can’t fail to make you happy.

And Finally...

Ariana believes in the supernatural - and demons in particular. She says that she used to have a folder on her phone called ‘demons’ with loads of pictures featuring that particular subject. However, spookily, ‘weird things’ (her words!) started happening to Ariana. This led to her deleting the folder.. and amazingly, the strange events then stopped!

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