Now, I am a fan of Ariana Grande. She is a queen and I have been listening to ‘thank u, next’ since last year and ‘7 rings’ this entire past month. Can you say: theme music? I absolutely love both these songs because they feel so empowering and I also just adore Ariana Grande, so that’s that.
Have you heard her track released only hours before her album ‘Thank u, Next’ dropped? It’s titled ‘break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored’. In the past 18 hours since the music video for the song has been posted on YouTube, it has already amassed an even 15 million views. Here’s the thing, I’m an English major and all I do with my life is overanalyze works of art. So, I have a theory about this music video so get ready to have it dropped on your head.
The video opens with Ariana Grande with her signature slick high ponytail and baby doll dress. Nothing unusual there. Then the scene switches to a club scene wherein Ari has her hair dyed blond and down. Clearly, a different look for her. Then who does she see walking into the club? An attractive guy and a gorgeous young woman rocking… Ari’s famous hairstyle!? That is clearly on purpose. Normally in music videos centered around female competition for a guy, the two females have stark aesthetic contrast (cf. Avril Lavigne’s ‘Girlfriend’ and Taylor Swift’s ‘You Belong With Me’). This already struck me as strange as someone who watched a ton of music videos from a young age. Not only that, but the other love interest is not played by Ariana, but instead by Ariel Yasmine. Why? I’ll address that a bit later.
There is so much emphasis on the similarity of the style of Ari and the other love interest that you would have to really be jamming to not see it. First, Ariana plays casually with Ariel’s hair, admiring it. Later, when she shows up at another get together she is wearing almost the same attire as her counterpart— long ponytail, a black minidress, black layered chokers (cute fit btw). Ariana flirts with Ariel all night and she seems to reciprocate to an extent.
Toward the end of the song, there is a mirror scene where in Ariana becomes Ariel and vice versa, showing their similarities. At the end of the video, Ariana steals a kiss from Ariel. Here’s my take on it: this is yet another facet of Grande’s vision of self-love. Here, Ariana does not become Ariel nor the other way around. I think that the “love interest” played by Ariel Yasmine is actually the “Ari” that Grande speaks of in her song ‘thank u, next’. The reason why a different actress plays her is because this Ari that Grande meets is a different person. She finds a person that is much like herself but different, someone worth aspiring to who possesses the qualities she desires. In becoming more like her, Grande is able to see more traits and qualities of Ari in herself.