In the past year alone, Ariana Grande’s career has skyrocketed. From winning the Best Pop Vocal Album Grammy for Sweetener, to releasing the single and album thank u, next only months after the release of her previous album, to headlining Coachella. Grande has now embarked on her next musical project: The Sweetener World Tour. I had the pleasure of attending her show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and all I can say is that I was absolutely blown away by the way she carried herself on stage, her insane vocals and the overall production. Yet, the one aspect of her show that resonated with me the most was her set list. She did an amazing job of singing almost every single song on thank u, next and Sweetener, while also mixing in some old tunes such as “Right There” and some major hits from Dangerous Woman.
Ari opened up the show with “raindrops (an angel cried)” and quickly transitioned to “God is a woman.” She alternated between songs from both her previous albums, yet halfway through the show, she began mixing in old songs. Rather than singing the full song, she performed the first verse, chorus and bridge of her older songs in order to give fans the full experience and remain in the time limit she had to perform. Unfortunately, no major artists made appearances on stage with her, but the fans were pleasantly surprised when Grande brought out Victoria Monet to sing their song “Monopoly.”
During the show, Grande was not alone on stage. She had about four to six back up dancers dancing alongside her for almost every song. Some props she had on stage included a convertible car, similar to the one that appeared in the “7 rings” music video, and a longer table when she performed “God is a woman.” Grande also paid a great deal of attention on her visuals on the screens above the stage. In order to follow through with the motif of the world, as seen in the “God is a woman” music video, a portion of the screen popped up in the form of half a sphere in order to make the visuals 3D like. These visuals included short videos of when she was younger and would sing around the house, and there were personalized visuals for every song. When she performed “thank u, next,” the screens showed a collection of praises from Twitter and Instagram right before she began to sing.
Grande also had a spectacular wardrobe. Her outfits flowed effortlessly with the theme of the production, especially since her color scheme was mainly hot pink, lavender and maroon. She mainly wore puffy skirts and short dresses and kept her hair in her trademarked high ponytail. She of course wore a heavy winged eyeliner in typical Ariana Grande fashion. Since the show, I have not stopped raving about Ariana. She keeps the energy going with every song, creates an extremely cohesive and entertaining set list, and you could easily tell she was having such a fun time. If the opportunity arises, I highly recommend seeing Ariana Grande live.