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The 11 best Ariana Grande songs
With London O2 Arena dates now announced for summer 2026, we rank the greatest Ariana Grande tracks
When we talk about the biggest pop stars of the decade, Ariana Grande is always in the conversation. Like so many great pop acts before her, Grande has reinvented herself over and over again, from her days on Nickelodeon to her chart domination, all the way to her Oscar-nominated turn as Glinda in Wicked. Over the years she’s worked a huge range of influences into her albums, from R&B and hip-hop to disco, doo-wop and musical theatre, all combining to create a distinct brand of pop utterly unique to her. And if you don’t know an Ariana Grande song from its sound, you know it from the vocals. Don’t worry – we’re going to talk about those whistle notes.
As the singer announces a return to the live stage with the Eternal Sunshine tour, we’re combing back through her discography to find her eleven best songs. Why have a top ten when you can have one more?
11. ‘My Everything’
(My Everything, 2014)
For all her pop anthems, Grande has always been expert at a ballad. Early on in her career, this second album title track stood out. Leaning fully into her love of R&B, basking in the overlap with musical theatre, she gives a vulnerable, emotional vocal performance, complete with so many of the vocal runs and flips that would make her famous, but tender and straightforward all the same. The song is stunning but simple, a confession of love from Grande to someone she fears losing. It’s the performance that takes it to another level, though, and earns it a place on this list.
10. ‘Honeymoon Avenue’
(Yours Truly, 2013)
The very first track on Grande’s very first album, ‘Honeymoon Avenue’ is lushly romantic, cinematic and wholly chart-friendly track that puts doo-wop backing vocals over an R&B beat, changes lanes at least three times and goes for over five minutes. The last twenty seconds sees Grande’s vocals pitched down and augmented like she’s on a house track. It shouldn’t work – with a different vocalist, it probably wouldn’t. But the collision of 60s, 90s and 2010s influences feels wholly authentic to Grande, and it’s her genre-evading voice that lends a cohesiveness to the whole affair. There’s so many details to enjoy here – the way that she sings “bumper-to-bumper traffic” like a heartbeat, the few seconds of breathy vocals over quiet vocals before it all gets lush again… It’s quite the beginning.
9. ‘supernatural’
(eternal sunshine, 2024)
eternal sunshine is a terrific album, so cohesive that it’s hard to pick the tracks that stand out. ‘supernatural’ nails the album’s sonic vision, though, capturing a nostalgia whilst still sounding current and exciting. Grande’s control over her voice makes the chorus – which already boasts an earworm melody – magical, lending it an ascending feeling. In an album that largely deals with difficult goodbyes, this upbeat love song is a welcome bright spot.
8. ‘imagine’
(thank u, next, 2019)
It’s time to talk about the whistle notes. thank u, next opener ‘imagine’ bridges the lushly romantic ballads and pop bangers of Grande’s earlier albums with the experimental R&B-heavy direction she would later move in. Grande describes a state of bliss in a relationship but lightly insinuates that it exists only in her mind. Her belt is strong and clear in the chorus, working up to a climax in the bridge – before she climbs even higher and whistle tones her way to the end of the song. It’s a vocal feat, but it’s the storytelling in ‘imagine’ that makes the track so memorable.
7. ‘One Last Time’
(My Everything, 2014)
One of Grande’s first truly great pure pop songs, ‘One Last Time’ proves what a voice like hers can do to a song already designed for chart success. Ultimately quite a sad track, it sees Grande begging for a final moment with the person she loves before she breaks it off forever, knowing she will never truly be what they want. It was this track that became an anthem for fans after the 2017 Manchester attacks – perhaps because of its affirming, yearning feel, perhaps because it delivers a real sense of catharsis that’s hard to pin down. Whatever it is, the song just works.
6. ‘no tears left to cry’
(Sweetener, 2018)
‘no tears left to cry’ was a huge shift for Grande. The singer had always been playful with her sound, but ‘no tears’ was arguably the first track of hers to lean fully into her distinctive genre-bending sound, unafraid to turn up the R&B, hip-hop and dance dials that informed the unique way she made pop. Beginning with the lush strings and hymnal vocals that had served her so well on her early albums, she smoothly switches lanes into this disco-inspired reflection on mental health and feeling joy after grief. It’s a perfect lead single.
5. ‘7 rings’
(thank u, next, 2019)
Interpolating ‘My Favourite Things’ from The Sound Of Music could have been a bit of an eye-roll move – weirdly, it totally works. Grande leans into her love of hip-hop here, demonstrating that she can rap as well as sing she brags about being able to give her friends – and herself – anything they want. She’s playful with her vocals, tongue-in-cheek with her lyrics, and very much gives off that she knows how to bend the charts to her sound. It’s another great example of Grande combining her influences and somehow making them mesh.
4. ‘thank u, next’
(thank u, next, 2019)
If ‘no tears left to cry’ was pivotal, ‘thank u, next’ was the track that solidified Grande as a unique force in pop. Unafraid to get deeply personal, Grande name-checks her exes, managing to cover public splits, a broken engagement and deep grief in one verse, her touch impossibly deft. In the wake of pain, Grande chooses gratitude, and demonstrates it in a truly great pop song that manages to feel deeply sincere without ever preaching. She acknowledges the heartbreak in her past and the way she’s grown from it, and still looks forward to finding love again one day with optimism and a sense of humour. “God forbid something happens,” she sings, adding – “at least this song was a smash.” It may have been premature, but it was also premonition.
3. ‘Into You’
(Dangerous Woman, 2016)
Considered by many to be one of the best pop songs of the 2010s, ‘Into You’ lives up to what Dangerous Woman promises – pop that sits prettily on the charts, but offers a slight undertone of something dark and urgent. Grande’s voice melds silkily with Max Martin’s vibrating beat until she sends it soaring in the chorus, a triumphant release that it’s difficult to resist. By the end of the song, there’s so much going on – all of it wonderful – that the insane high notes she’s hitting in the background might even pass you by. ‘Into You’ is one of those pop songs that joyfully washes over you, in the very best way.
2. ‘ghostin’
(thank u, next, 2019)
Slap bang in the middle of an excellent pop album we get this heartbreaker. Over faintly howling synths, over a sickening, stomach-clenching sense of something reaching out, Grande delivers a delicate, tremulous vocal that cuts straight to the heat. She sings about grieving a loss that her current partner just can’t understand, even though they want to. “We’ll get through this, we’ll get past this,” she sings, piteously, like a prayer. It’s dreamy, unreal, faintly nightmarish. It’s a perfect encapsulation of how it feels to be haunted by a feeling.
1. ‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love)’
(eternal sunshine, 2024)
It’s hard to say which, of ‘ghostin’ or ‘we can’t be friends’ is more heartbreaking. ‘we can’t be friends’ tops the list not because of the gut punch it delivers, though, but because it’s a truly excellent song. Once again, Grande curves genre expectations, delivering a raw and real breakup song over a throbbing synth-pop beat, her lightest, most ethereal vocals dancing above it. True to the eternal sunshine concept, the song explores all the things you have to leave behind when exiting a long-term relationship – most crucially, the friendship that you’ve cultivated with the person who knows you better than anyone else. It’s some of best Grande’s lyricism, complete with a chorus that makes you either want to dance or sob, depending on the day. Some days, it might be both at once.
Ariana Grande has announced summer 2026 dates at London’s O2 Arena, with tickets on sale here
