In late 2015, Ariana Grande‘s seemingly frictionless ascendance to all-consuming pop superstardom had lastly hit a tiny little bit of turbulence. “Donutgate” and different small-scale controversies had put her within the media’s crossfire for the primary time, whereas “Focus” — the deliberate lead single off her upcoming third album, then to be titled Moonlight — had upset commercially and left followers just a little chilly. It was nothing she couldn’t and wouldn’t bounce again from, however within the meantime, she dropped a shock launch to rejoice the vacation season, and provides each her sound and her profession just a little little bit of a reset: the six-song EP Christmas & Chill.
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On this week’s Nice Moments in Pop Star Historical past episode of the Biggest Pop Stars podcast, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard workers author and longtime Arianator Kyle Denis to look again at 10 years of Christmas & Chill. We bear in mind the Ariana Grande vacation releases that preceded it — together with a music that’s already properly on its approach to being an all-time seasonal commonplace — after which dive into why Chill has come to carry a very particular place within the hearts of followers and of Grande herself, in addition to the way it ended up predicting loads of the locations she would go in her later secular releases.
Whereas doing so, we deal with all probably the most urgent questions round Grande’s Christmas & Chill — how did an EP with no self-consciously huge songs on it find yourself taking part in such a giant half in her profession? What are our favourite songs on the EP? How did she get away with a ukulele music in 2015? Can we care concerning the distinction between the “Naughty” and good variations of “Santa Inform Me”? Why has Grande by no means made a lot of an effort to actively revisit or repromote any of her vacation releases? And maybe most significantly: Is there a world during which Grande finally finally ends up being Mariah Carey’s successor because the Queen of Christmas?
Test it out above — together with a YouTube playlist of a few of Ariana’s most related vacation music moments, all of that are mentioned within the podcast — and subscribe to the Biggest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions each Thursday about all issues associated to pop stardom!
Additionally take a look at Kyle’s 2025 12 months in R&B overview, in addition to his current Druski cowl story.
And as we are saying in each one in all these GPS podcast posts — when you’ve got the money and time to spare, please take into account donating to any of those causes within the battle for trans rights:
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Vacation spot Tomorrow
Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe
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