Ariana Grande dropped ‘7 rings,’ her ode to friendship and retail therapy, on Thursday night, and it’s an unapologetic display of the pop star’s self-earned wealth.
In fact, she’s owning it. All of it. And she’s happy to sing — and rap — about it.
Sampling ‘My Favorite Things’ — yes, the ‘Sound of Music’ show tune — Grande breaks down the material things that make her happy and how she was inspired by her girlfriends for whom she bought Tiffany & Co engagement/friendship rings.
The accompanying Hannah Lux Davis-directed music video is a pink-hued fantasy-scape, replete with an all-girl house party that drips with diamonds, fur and Japanese hidden messages.
If we’ve learned anything from Grande’s tumultuous 2018, it’s that the 25-year-old pop queen is eager to move past the drama that brings her down, dismissing her personal struggles by leaning into her work and generating another professional hit. She gets slightly introspective in the second verse, alluding to her broken engagement with ‘SNL’ star Pete Davidson and how she’s already moved past it thanks to those titular rings.
“Wearing a ring, but ain’t gon’ be no Mrs
Bought matching diamonds for six of my [expletive]
I’d rather spoil all my friends with my riches
Think retail therapy my new addiction
Whoever said money can’t solve your problems
Must not have had enough money to solve ‘em”
‘7 rings’ is just the latest in spontaneous song releases following her 2018 album, ‘Sweetener.’ Along with its predecessors, her breakup hit ‘thank u, next’ and ‘Imagine,’ her new tracks align with her renewed philosophy of releasing music like rappers.
“My dream has always been to be — obviously not a rapper, but, like, to put out music in the way that a rapper does,” she recently told Billboard. “I feel like there are certain standards that pop women are held to that men aren’t. We have to do the teaser before the single, then do the single, and wait to do the preorder, and radio has to impact before the video, and we have to do the discount on this day, and all this ...
“It’s just like, bruh, I just want to ... talk to my fans and sing and write music and drop it the way these boys do.”
