Ariana Grande Opens Up on Mac Miller's Secret Advice That Helped Her Break Free From Her Nickelodeon Image
Ariana Grande has been reflecting on a pivotal moment from her early music career, sharing how Mac Miller encouraged her to transcend her Nickelodeon persona and discover her true voice. This memory came up as fans remembered what would have been Miller's 36th birthday, looking back on how much he's meant to artists and listeners over the years.
Many discussed Grande and Miller as one of the creative power couples in the late 2010s. Even after they split up, they stayed close. Miller, whose real name was Malcolm McCormick, died in 2018, but people still feel his presence in music nearly eight years later.
On "The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter" podcast, Grande talked about the nerves she felt after leaving television. She acknowledged that the process of creating her first album was challenging—she couldn't help but hear Nickelodeon in the background, wondering what her new music should sound like.
"My debut album took some time to figure out, because there was also a strange presence from Nickelodeon in my head at the beginning of, like, what should this project be?" she said.
Grande first got famous as Cat Valentine on Nickelodeon's "Victorious." Her trademark was over-the-top comedy and red hair. But Miller saw something more. She said, "I've never talked about this, but actually Malcolm – who you might know as Mac – encouraged me to be myself, and that it was OK to kind of shed that character and embrace my brown hair and make R&B-influenced pop music and separate and do the brave thing," according to HotNewHipHop.
That push from Miller really changed things for her. It led straight to her debut album, Yours Truly, in 2013 USA Today. The album hit No. 1 and featured "The Way," her first collab with Miller. Thinking back, Grande said she asked him to be part of it because he fit the song perfectly, but also because she owed him for helping her find her sound.
Grande and Miller went public as a couple in September 2016, but broke up in May 2018. After their breakup, Miller got into a drunk driving accident, and a few months later, he died from an accidental overdose. Authorities later charged three men for supplying the drugs that killed him.
Originally published on Music Times
