Her career has been a non-stop rise to fame, so the amazingly talented Ariana Grande is one of the most popular singers, songwriters, and actresses in the world.
In this post, You’ll discover the ultimate list of facts about Ariana Grande.
1. She was born in sunny Florida
Ariana Grande was born in the Sunshine State, in a city called “Boca Raton,” which is often simply referred to as “Boca.”
Boca Raton is the southernmost city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, and is one of the wealthiest communities in southern Florida.
2. Ariana Grande’s real name
Her real name is Ariana Grande-Butera.
3. Her name was inspired by a princess
Ariana is a pretty amazing name, but did you know that it was inspired by a princess? Well, a fictional princess that is.
Her name was inspired by Oriana from Felix the Cat, the princess that rules over the kingdom of Oriana in the movie.
4. She is of Italian descent
Ariana Grande refers to herself as an “Italian American” and is half Sicilian and half Abruzzese.
Sicily is an island in the south of Italy and became world-famous through the Godfather movies, Abruzzo is a region in Italy east of the capital, Rome.
5. She referred to herself as “dark and deranged”
She was a little bit weird when growing up and didn’t really get along with her peers. She preferred to have skeleton paint on her face and wear Freddy Krueger masks.
It went that far that she was carrying hockey sticks around and imagined herself to be a little Helena Bonham Carter.
6. She loves horror movies
because she was fascinated with the occult and dark side of things, even as a kid, she loves to watch horror movies and apparently doesn’t scare easily.
7. She’s the daughter of a CEO
Her father’s name is Edward Butera and he is the owner of a graphic design firm. Her mother’s name is Joan Grande and was born in Brooklyn, New York.
Joan Grande is the CEO of Hose-McCann Communications, a manufacturer of communications and safety equipment. Not too shabby!
8. Ariana Grande has a 10-year older half-brother
Her half-brother’s full name is Frank James Michael Grande Marchione (born January 24, 1983) and he is an American dancer, actor, singer, producer, television host, and YouTube personality.
9. She’s very close with her half-brother
Even though there’s a 10-year age gap between the two, Ariana Grande and her half-brother Frankie are very close.
Frankie referred to their relationship as being “Yin and Yang” and told, “She’s my best friend and probably the person who makes me proudest on this planet.”
10. She had an epic reaction when her brother came out
Frankie Grande is gay and came out when Ariana Grande was just 11 years old. He was already 21 by that time.
Ariana had an amazing response to the news as she simply mentioned “Great, when do I get to see your boyfriend?”
11. Her mom thought she would grow up a serial killer
She looks like the nicest person you’ll ever come across but as a child, she was pretty weird. Even her mother thought she would grow up to be a serial killer because of her weird behavior at the age of 3-4.
12. Her friends left crying at her 5th birthday party
Other little girls have birthday parties with princess themes or mermaids. The theme of Ariana Grande’s 5th birthday party was…”Jaws!” The most infamous movie shark that reigns terror on an entire community.
It’s funny now, but at the time it wasn’t at all. She mentions that all her friends were scared and left the party crying.
13. Her zodiac sign is cancer
Ariana Grande was born on June 28, 1993, at 9:16 pm in Boca Raton, Florida. This means that her sun sign is in Cancer, her moon is in Libra and her ascendant is in Capricorn.
14. She moved when her mother was pregnant with her
Her parents used to live in New York, but when her mother was pregnant with Ariana Grande, the family moved to Boca Raton in Florida.
15. By the age of 19, she was already world-famous
The career of Ariana really shot up like a rocket. By the time she was just 19, she was already as popular on social media as established celebrities such as Britney and Beyoncé.
16. She started tweeting when she was 13
The main reason she started tweeting was to stay in touch with the people she knows and to keep memories of the things she had done.
Little did she know that over a decade later she would be followed by over 70 million people worldwide (and counting).
17. She started early on
Even though her career skyrocketed in her teens, she already started singing with the Florida Sunshine Pops and performed with the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theater as a child.
18. Her first role ever was Annie
She was just 8 years old and landed her first role, and it was nothing less than the lead in the famous musical “Annie.”
Other musicals she performed in as a kid were “The Wizard of Oz” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
19. Her parents split up
even though she found her artistic self when she was a little girl, that very moment her parents decided to split up. She was around 9 years old at the time.
20. Therapy helped her get through
She didn’t take the divorce of her parents too well as she revealed that she has been in therapy for over a decade.
She has suffered from anxiety for a very long time, and the therapy, which started shortly after her parents divorced, has helped her get through,
21. Don’t remind Ariana where her name comes from!
It’s not that she doesn’t like Oriana, the Princess in the Felix the Cat movie, it’s just that she’s allergic to cats. So let’s just avoid the subject if you’re lucky enough to ever meet her.
22. She’s also allergic to fruit
Not all fruit, just bananas.
23. She grew up listening to Whitney Houston
Apart from listening to the soundtrack of the movie “The Bodyguard” numerous times, she also enjoyed listening to old divas such as Judy Garland.
24. She was never trained to sing
Even though music has always been her passion, she actually never really focused on it as a child (before the age of 13 when she started taking it more seriously). She always played in theater and music “just kind of happened,” she mentions.
Isn’t that one of the most remarkable facts about Ariana Grande?
She played the French horn for two years and knows a bit of piano, but that’s all the theory she ever got. She’s just a natural-born singer!
25. Her voice is really something
Ariana Grande has a four-octave soprano vocal range and goes all the way to E7. She also has the whistle register, the highest register of the human voice, lying above the modal register and falsetto register.
This kinda proves she’s a natural-born singer, isn’t it?
26. She got cast out of 1,000’s of candidates
In 2008, she was cast for the Broadway production “13” in which she was cast in the supporting role of cheerleader Charlotte.
She received a National Youth Theatre Association Award for her performance in the musical In 2010.
27. She wasn’t cast alone on 13
She actually came to New York with her best friend, and they were both casts. They used to play in the theater together since they were 8 years old.
She referred to this moment like “The cast was 13 kids and out of 13 kids, we made it out of thousands, how is that even possible?”
28. Her real breakthrough was with Nickelodeon
Her big breakthrough to the general public happened when she was cast in the Nickelodeon television show “Victorious.”
29. She played a peculiar character on the show
Her role in “Victorious” was that of “Cat Valentine,” a weird and socially awkward redhead. below you can see some of her best moments in the show:
30. The role nearly destroyed her hair
Ariana Grande isn’t a natural redhead, she has dark brown hair. That’s why she had to dye her hair every other week to get Cat’s look for the 4 years she played the role.
Obviously, dying your hair every other week isn’t the best thing to do, so this damaged her hair severely.
31. That’s why she has her famous ponytail
The reason she is wearing her hair in a ponytail and using extensions is just that. Here you can see her explaining things on her Facebook page:
32. Are you an Ariana Grande fan?
Then you are called an Arianator!
She didn’t really like this name and tried to make a change to it. As she always refers to her fans as “My Loves,” she wanted her fans to be called this way in 2014. This didn’t work and the word Arianators is still being used today.
33. She sang at the White House
In March 2014, she sang for the first time at the White House in front of the Obamas. Also on the program was nobody less than Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Melissa Etheridge, and Janelle Monae.
The occasion? First Lady Michelle Obama brought together a group of famous singers for a concert to celebrate “Women of Soul.”
Apparently, she did a good job as she was invited yet again just a month later for the Easter Egg Roll event.
34. Instead of sexy, she went the 1950s
In great contrast to similar young ladies that became superstars such as Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus, she didn’t turn to hypersexual when she was becoming a young woman.
Instead, she chose to take on a vintage style from the 1950s, influenced by pin-up girls such as Audrey Hepburn.
35. Ariana Grande is a petite girl
She is just 5 feet tall (152.5 cm) which makes her a true shorty.
36. She got discovered by…
Her mother. She was apparently the first person to realize she could sing pretty well (more like WOW, amazing)!
37. She was a science girl
When Ariana attended Pine Crest School and North Broward Preparatory School, her favorite subject was science.
38. She left school to pursue her career
When she was traveling to New York to pursue her dream (and actually got cast in her first audition for the musical “13”) she didn’t go to her high school anymore.
She was however still enrolled, and her teachers just sent her the materials for her to study and finish exams.
39. Her first crush was…
Justin Timberlake!
We do need to mention that she was just 3 years old at the time (about the time she was thought to become a serial killer by her mother) and Justin looked completely different than he does now.
40. She shares an amazing record with Adele
She and the English singer Adele are the only female singers to have three songs in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time. The songs were:
- “Problem” featuring Iggy Azalea.
- “Break Free” featuring Zedd.
- “Bang Bang.”
41. Her second album did amazing
Her second album “My Everything” hit first place on the Billboard 200 album charts in its first week on sale.
Arianators were waiting for the release for a long time because that’s simply amazing!
42. Her first album was No. 1 as well
This means she had two number 1 albums in the same year, an achievement only repeated in recent years by Susan Boyle back in 2010.
43. But how did she get signed by a record label?
So Ariana played the role of Cat Valentine for a couple of years and suddenly she becomes one of the best-selling female artists of the moment.
How did this transition happen so fast?
She got spotted by Republic Records when she uploaded some videos to Youtube (during the years she was working on the “Victorious” show in Nickelodeon) of her covering Mariah Carey and Adele. Republic Records spotted her and offered her a record deal.
It all seems so easy if you’re so talented, doesn’t it?
44. She co-founded a charity at age 10
She co-founded the South Florida singing group “Kids Who Care” which performed to raise money for charity. In 2007 alone, they raised over $500,000 for charities.
45. She loves to play Monopoly
She doesn’t get tired of the game as she’s a real fanatic. When she expressed this, a concert venue in Canada must have heard it and promptly created a monopoly game featuring an Ariana figure.
46. She got the record for most-watched video
When her video for the song “Thank U Next” came out, it instantly became the most-watched video on Youtube in a period of 24 hours.
This kinda proves she has a huge loyal fan base who is just waiting for her to release new songs. That’s the Arianators!
This is the video:
47. Her manager thinks she’s extremely charming
And that’s the person who would know!
Scooter Brown once commented on Ariana that she’s “one the nicest people I’ve ever met and really just so charming.”
48. Ariana Grande loves dogs!
She’s allergic to cats, but she truly loves dogs. At the moment she has 9 dogs with the names of Coco, Toulouse, Cinnamon, Strauss, Lafayette, Pignoli, Myron, Snape, and Lily.
49. She adopts rescued dogs
Ariana Grande doesn’t just go out and buy a dog. All the dogs she has are rescued dogs which she loves to adopt. She also encourages other people to do the same.
We’re pretty sure these are some of the luckiest dogs in the world!
50. She does a lot for charity
Co-founding an organization that benefits charities before she ever became famous at the age of 10 just prove she has a heart of gold. And she just continued the moment she started making big money.
She often performs just for charity and one of the most touching concerts was the “One Love Manchester” concert, dedicated solely to the victims of the senseless terrorist attack that happened after her Manchester concert.
51. A lot of money was raised for the victims
One of the most interesting facts about Ariana Grande is that, despite being in shock and suffering from severe anxiety attacks, she managed to do the One Love Manchester concert just two weeks after the incident happened.
The $23 million (more than £17 million) that were raised were completely donated for the benefit of the victim’s families.
52. She went to a concert for the first time in 2011
The artist she went to see was Katy Perry, a female artist who also performed at the One Manchester Concert.
53. Her favorite movie is Bruce Almighty
The hilarious comedy features Jim Carey as Bruce and Morgan Freeman play the role of God.
54. Ariana Grande is vegan
She loves animals and doesn’t consume any animal products. This definition makes her a vegan.
The reason she became completely vegan in 2013 is that she believes an all-plant diet extends your life and makes you a happier person.
55. Ariana Grande loves tattoos
It’s estimated that she has about 46 tattoos. Many of these tattoos have a deeper meaning.
56. One of the videos that got Ariana a record deal
Remember that Ariana Grande actually wanted to become an actress and that music “just happened?” Well, she did put in some effort as she posted covers of her singing covers of Adele on Youtube.
Here is one video posted in 2011 that clearly shows why she was spotted:
