"Thank U, Next" (stylized in all lowercase) is a song by American singer-songwriter Ariana Grande. It was surprise-released on November 3, 2018, by Republic Records as the lead single from her fifth studio album of the same name (2019). Written by Grande, Tayla Parx and Victoria Monét, and produced by Tommy Brown, Charles Anderson, and Michael Foster, "Thank U, Next" is a celebratory ode to Grande's failed relationships, following the highly publicized breakup with her then-fiancé Pete Davidson. Considered a modern cultural phenomenon, the song's title and its lyrics spawned several catch phrases and online memes.
Grande originally wrote the song while engaged to Davidson, during a tumultuous point in their relationship. Several versions of the song were recorded due to the uncertainty of her relationship with Davidson at the time, as well as hesitation from Parx regarding whether Grande should list the names of her exes in the song's lyrics. Upon release, "Thank U, Next" was met with critical acclaim; critics praised its catchiness, lyricism and positive message. It has been listed as one of the 100 songs that defined the 2010s decade by Billboard, and was featured in several year-end and decade-end rankings. The song was also included in Rolling Stones 2021 revision of their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time at number 137.
"Thank U, Next" was an immediate commercial success worldwide, reaching number one in 23 countries. With only five days of tracking, it debuted at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Grande's first number one single in the United States. It spent seven weeks at number one in the country, and has been certified as eight-times platinum by the RIAA. The song also broke numerous streaming records upon release, including the record for the most streams received by a song in a single day for a female artist on Spotify, and the largest on-demand streaming week for a female artist ever recorded in the US.
Its music video, directed by Hannah Lux Davis, was released on November 30, 2018. The music video referenced the early 2000s' cult classic films Bring It On, Legally Blonde, Mean Girls and 13 Going on 30, and featured several celebrity cameos. It broke many viewership records, including the record for the most-watched music video on YouTube within 24 hours, with over 55.4 million views, and the largest YouTube Premiere ever at the time. The video was met with widespread critical acclaim, was highlighted as one of the pioneering moments in pop culture for 2018 and received a nomination for Video of the Year at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards.
Background and release On November 2, 2018, Grande tweeted lyrics of a mysterious track, after her ex-fiancé, Pete Davidson, joked about their broken engagement on Saturday Night Live. The following day, she tweeted more lyrics, revealing that they indeed belong to a track named "Thank U, Next", which she described was lyrically and conceptually the opposite of her Dangerous Woman (2016) track "Knew Better". She also revealed that Thank U, Next would also be the title of her fifth album, which she had been teasing for several months on Twitter.
The song was surprise-released on November 3, 2018, without any prior official announcement or promotion. Its release late on Saturday went against the standard of Global Release Day, where most music is released midnight on Fridays.
Composition and lyrics
"Thank U, Next" is a self-empowerment pop and R&B song that mentions many of Grande's past relationships. It features elements of synth-pop in its production.
The song is written in the key of B minor in common time with a tempo of 107 beats per minute. The vocal melody's range is from low A3 to high E5. Its chord progression (G – – B – ) can be considered to be a double-time variant of the chorus of Bill Withers' 1981 R&B song "Just the Two of Us", which itself can be considered a variation of the first four bars of Bobby Hebb's 1963 soul jazz song "Sunny".
Grande explained in an interview that "thank u, next..." is a phrase that she and fellow singer/songwriter Victoria Monét use. The lyrics acknowledge four of her past relationships: "Thought I'd end up with Sean/ But he wasn't a match/ Wrote some songs about Ricky/ Now I listen and laugh/ Even almost got married/ And for Pete, I'm so thankful/ Wish I could say 'Thank you' to Malcolm/ 'Cause he was an angel" refer to Big Sean, Ricky Alvarez, Pete Davidson, and the late Mac Miller, respectively.
Grande originally wrote the song while engaged to Davidson, during a tumultuous point in their relationship. Several versions of the song were recorded due to the uncertainty of her relationship with Davidson at the time. Parx urged Grande to be specific and use the names of her exes in the song. In an interview with The Zach Sang Show, Grande explained:
There's a version where I was getting married, there's a version where I'm not getting married, there's a version with nothing—we're not talking about anything. ...But we all knew that the first version was gonna be the version we ultimately went with.
Grande also revealed an alternate opening line that omitted the names of her exes: "They say I'm too young/ had too many boyfriends."
The song spawned an Internet meme, inspired by the lyrics "One taught me love/ one taught me patience/ one taught me pain". The title of the song also began to be popularly used among those on the Internet in a similar fashion to the way it is used in the song.
Critical reception
"Thank U, Next" received widespread acclaim from music critics. Markos Papadatos from Digital Journal said the song is an "ode to gratitude, an anthem to a fresh start and new beginnings, where she is not afraid to be raw and vulnerable; Grande's vulnerability is the listener's reward." He also said the song is "sultry, cathartic and expressive" and praised Grande's breathy vocals as "pristine and heavenly, and it is evident the pop throne is still hers. 'thank u, next' garners an A rating."
Quinn Moreland from Pitchfork named the song "Best New Track" and praised Grande's ability to talk about her past relationships with newfound serenity: "She doesn't stir the pot about her recent breakup, as the common media narrative might expect; instead she finds the value in letting go. It's a generosity rarely spotted these days when it is so much more tempting to clap back with vinegar instead of honey. Much like the "one girl swaying alone" twist in Lorde's 'Liability,' it's an eloquent display of inner strength and incisive self-awareness." Spencer Kornhaber from The Atlantic said the song highlights Grande's ownership of not only the breakup gossip, but also "her romantic life, her growth as a person, and her career as a maker of catchily inspirational bops". He remarked the lyrics are "feminist rewriting of the public narrative—about a woman defined by, and perhaps even brought down by, men—pulled off with lightness. The vibe is sly and swinging; a high hat in the chorus makes like a drum crash during a stand-up roast. ... classic pop romanticism, cut with shit happens realism, spiked with trendy swagger-as-empowerment."
Brittany Spanos from Rolling Stone said despite what the title may suggest, the song is "surprisingly gracious, a balm and a sticky note reminder on the heart that sometimes it's not about life getting better; it's about wanting to better yourself" and praised Grande for delivering one of the very few pop songs to promote real, true self-love." Megan Reynolds from Jezebel stated the song is not the "anthem of a spurned lover, looking to destroy everything in her path. Instead, Grande took a page from the book of Mariah Carey: 'thank u, next' is a motivational narrative powered by pettiness". She also remarked the song works beautifully around how unbothered it is "here is pettiness for mostly good with a dash of evil, subverting the traditional spurned lover subtweet of the sort preferred by an artist like Taylor Swift. Not all music that comes out of heartbreak has to be introspective, but it is often so much better when it is. Fame rushes people towards a sort of forced maturity in many ways. Pettiness, when used for good, is quite powerful."
"Thank U, Next" was ranked as one of the best songs of the 2010s by several publications. Pitchfork stated the song itself works against the somewhat dismissive sentiment of the title "the twinkling chorus is steeped in a kind of corny but joyful gratitude, for the past but also for the present self. "thank u, next" might even be considered a little bit of a troll because of how it challenges the voyeurism of her situation: It would have been salacious to air an ex out for the world to see, but it is more fascinating to draw an eager audience close before offering what is merely a small token of gratitude". Dan Weiss from Consequence of Sound said Grande "regained control of her world with an amazing, off-the-cuff ditty that nipped several tabloid narratives in the bud. ... And with that she achieved unprecedented parity between chart-topping success and social-media virtuosity. Uproxx said "if everyone wrote a song as gracious and personally affirming as "Thank U, Next" about their ex, the breakup genre as we know it would become an uplifting thing." Billboard listed "Thank U, Next" as one of the "100 Songs that Defined the Decade", saying the song "may go down in history as the most gracious breakup song ever written". USA Today listed "Thank U, Next" as the representative song of 2018 in the list of 10 songs that defined the 2010s in music. Vice ranked "Thank U, Next" at number 23 on its list of best pop comebacks of the 21st century. In 2021, The Guardian ranked the song number eight on its list of Grande's 20 greatest songs, and in 2022, Rolling Stone ranked the song number five on its list of Grande's 50 greatest songs.
Year-end lists +Appearances on year-end listsPublicationRankRef. Billboard The Guardian NPR Pitchfork Time Vulture
Decade-end lists +Appearances on decade-end listsPublicationRankRef Uproxx Uproxx (pop) Rolling Stone Pitchfork The Guardian (pop) Parade Magazine DiamondBack Spotify Amazon Consequence Crack Magazine
All-time lists +Appearances on all-time listsPublicationRankRef Rolling Stone Billboard
Accolades +Accolades for "Thank U, Next" Year Organization Award Result Ref.2019iHeartRadio Music AwardsBest Lyric Best Music VideoSong That Left Us ShookNickelodeon Kids' Choice AwardsFavorite SongDenmark Gaffa-Prisen AwardsInternational Song of the YearSweden Gaffa AwardsTeen Choice AwardsChoice Pop SongMTV Video Music AwardsVideo of the YearBest Pop VideoBest CinematographyBest DirectionSong of the YearMTV Europe Music AwardBest VideoQueerty AwardsQueer Anthem
Commercial performance
On November 5, 2018, "Thank U, Next" broke the record for the most streams received by a song in a single day by a female artist on Spotify, with 8.19 million streams globally, and continued to break this record daily until November 9, when it received 9.6 million streams. The record was broken by Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" the following month. "Thank U, Next" surpassed 100 million streams on Spotify eleven days after its release on November 14, becoming the fastest song to do so, until Grande's next single, "7 Rings", broke the record again, reaching 100 million streams on Spotify nine days after its release.
North America