Ariana Grande has been on quite the roller coaster in 2018 and she didn’t shy away from that fact when accepting Billboard’s Woman Of The Year award tonight in New York.
The legendary Patti Labelle introduced the singer, who was the evening’s top honoree and spoke passionately about her many achievements over the last twelve months.
Filled with gratitude, Grande gave a nod to those wins – which include #1 placements for album ‘Sweetener’ and recent single ‘Thank, U Next.’
However, she tearfully spoke on the duality of 2018, expressing that it’s been “the best year of my life professionally and yet the worst year of my life personally.” The latter, course, referring to broken relationships, the tragic passing of a partner, recovering from the Manchester terrorist attack, and navigating media scrutiny.
She drew on the internal conflict it’s caused her, but pivoted to draw on it to encourage those going through similar chapters.
Watch all the action, including a live performance, after the jump…
Prior to hitting the stage, Patti saluted the songstress…
Watch her performance of ‘Thank U, Next’ below…
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She deserves this
she honestly, does not.
the industry has to STOP giving out sympathy awards or “long overdue” recognition for people & projects who truly don’t deserve the accolades.
Ariana is cute and she’s sweet.
Thank U, Next is now a bop.
However, over the course of this year, it’s her personal life woes that have dominated headlines & not the music … leading up to this end-of-year smash hit that isn’t even associated with the SWEETENER album that was released as her actual 2018 project.
I agree with this message ☝?…
Unfortunately you are right – she did not hit the headlines because her music has had cultural impact – sure it’s popular… I don’t think she plays on sympathy of what’s happened to her personal life wise – I think she’s just a ditsy insecure and pretty girl who just happens to be one of most talented technical singers of her generation.
On the other hand – somebody in her camp should have ensured she was more articulate – she just came across as hella immature and incapable of stringing a sentence together. And they bash Beyoncé …… ??♂️
Couldn’t of said it better!!!
the performance was TRAGIC.
honestly, they only handed this award to Ari as a sympathy ode to the personal endeavors.
she was announced as Woman Of The Year PRIOR TO all of this “Thank U, Next” success.
There were so many other deserving female stars this year.
Patti dahhling, i’m gonna have to stop sending those bottles of Cristal over to you after this little stunt!
Lmaoooo ?
I only liked Thank you, Next but her soprano isn’t very mature!!
She deserved this Award ……………..WHY? someone please explain?
She sucked enough d**** and bent over to the big guys. So bamn take the award “good girl.”
She didn’t deserve it. And neither did Selena Gomez last year. They just got it based on their personal lives. This “award” really is a joke.
Is she the charity case of the year because apart from one number one single which wasn’t even out when they decided on giving her the award. What has she done?
Fake engagements and having an exam boyfriend who killed himself. But yeah she cashed in on it by name dropping him for that you next.
All the reasons people are saying she doesn’t deserve this award are the very reasons she does. This award isn’t based on sales or chart placement it’s honoring “women in the music industry who have made significant contributions to the business and who, through their work and continued success, inspire generations of women to take on increasing responsibilities within the field”. The way her and her team have navigated her brand this past year has been a master class in dealing with hardships with grace in an industry that profits off of headlines and scandal. I say congrats.
But… she’s been profiting off of headlines…
that’s everybody’s point. Her personal drama is literally the ONLY thing that kept her in the news all year. Having problems is not an accomplishment. And they gave her the title before thank u next. Name one significant contribution she’s made to the business. And inspiration? That’s vague criteria that you could make a laundry list of for every artist in the industry. Basically, she gets an award because stuff happened to her.