Every Ariana Grande Album – Ranked!

Ariana Grande is no stranger to pop stardom, and with seven albums up her sleeve, she’s proven herself to be a meaningful artist over the years.

From doo-wop inspired tunes to trap and R&B beats to taking inspiration from Jim Carrey movies for her albums, Grande is versatile in her music as much as she is in her career. She has redefined what it means to be a pop star, and the lessons she has learned in life and love over the years are reflected in her music. Grande is more than just a pop star–she’s a true artist.

Besides her impressive discography, Grande is our Glinda in Universal Pictures’ Wicked, and it was recently announced that she’ll star in the upcoming movie Focker In-Law (Meet the Parents 4) alongside Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro.

She also recently teased that she may be working on a mini tour for her fans on her Instagram.

While we anticipate Grande in Wicked: For Good, Focker In-Law, and her upcoming tour, take a look at our ranking of all seven of her albums:

7. My Everything (2014)

Although My Everything (2014) is catchy and has a handful of hits like “Problem” featuring Iggy Azealea, “Love Me Harder” featuring The Weeknd, and “One Last Time,” it establishes Grande as a pop star more than as an artist.

My Everything is feature and hit heavy, which overshadows her true artistry. By having so many other artists featured, eight in total, Grande’s strong voice and songwriting capabilities don’t shine as much as they do on her other albums. By having this many features, it weakens the album and takes away from her voice as an artist.

The attention to songs like “Break Free” with Zedd and “Be My Baby” with Cashmere Cat, for example, takes away from deeper cuts that showcase Grande’s writing like the titular track “My Everything.”

It also feels like an extension of her debut album, Yours Truly, since the aesthetics of both are similar. While Yours Truly feels like we’re reading Grande’s diary, My Everything is the persona she puts on when she’s outside her room.

It blends in with other pop hits and carefully places Ariana Grande among the list of pop stars—it doesn’t make her stand out. While it’s still a solid pop album, it’s 7th on our list because it’s not as versatile and strong like her other albums.

6. Yours Truly (2013)

Yours Truly is a perfect debut album—it’s all we need to know about what Grande has to offer us. She loves doo-wops, she loves R&B, and she loves singing about love. Songs like “Honeymoon Avenue” and “Tattooed Heart” highlight her songwriting abilities, while “The Way,” featuring Mac Miller, and “Baby I” prove she’s got the chops to be a pop star. It’s a perfect blend of Grande being a relatable “girl next door” but also a pop star.

As her pop debut, the album set Grande apart from her musical peers in 2013. Grande came onto the pop scene with Yours Truly and reintroduced us to a new and refreshing retro-style pop with a flair of R&B beats. It is a humble debut for a very not-so-humble voice like Grande’s.

A promising debut, it lands as her 6th best album on her list for the potential of her as a pop star but still finding her footing as an artist.

5. Dangerous Woman (2016)

Dangerous Woman is her third album and is stronger than her first two albums because of the feminist and woman-empowering undertones.

Her branding as a pop star took a turn with this album. Gone are the bows and locked diary entries, in with the leather bunny mask and noir aesthetic, and deeper message for fans. It’s the message that truly makes a pop star an artist, and Dangerous Woman‘s main theme is female empowerment. Instead of singing to her fans about love, Grande sends a powerful message of being confident and unapologetic.

During a live chat she hosted back in February 2016, Grande said, “I want to be empowering my fans. I feel like my personal growth is reflected in the sound… To me, a dangerous woman is someone who’s not afraid to take a stand, be herself and to be honest.”

The album also has notable features such as Nicki Minaj and ‘Lil Wayne, but it doesn’t take away from her branding as a pop star or her artistry. It’s more mature than her first two albums and she gave us one of her greatest hits of her career, “Into You.” She finds her footing with this album as a pop star—no longer just an entertainer but a pop star who wants to make a positive empowering impact on her fans.

4. Sweetener (2018)

Sweetener is arguably Grande’s most experimental album because of the mix of sounds that range from pop, R&B and trap to house and hip hop. The album was mainly produced by Pharrell Williams and Max Martin and it earned Grande’s first Grammy win for Best Pop Vocal Album in 2019. Because of its eclectic sound and take on pop, it lands at number 4 on our list.

The aesthetic of Sweetener is completely different from her first three albums, which were all black and white. Sweetener was Grande’s first “in color” album—she used dream-like imagery like clouds and rainbows. It was also inspired by the movie The Truman Show (1998) with the use of the staircase in promotional images of the album. She had every song title in lowercase and her image was flipped upside down for the cover.

Sweetener was also Grande’s most vulnerable album at the time. It was the first release after the Manchester bombing at her concert during her Dangerous Woman world tour. Instead of only singing about love and offering pop hits, Grande sings about the anxiety she felt following the bombing and how she dealt with being in the public eye after that.

She dives deeper into her mental state in this album, showing a new kind of vulnerability with her fans. There is strength in being vulnerable in music because it’s more relatable. When even a pop star like Grande has days of anxiety and insecurity, it makes people feel understood.

It’s a strong album for taking a more dream-like pop sound and lyrically being so honest about where Grande was in her life when she wrote it.

3. Positions (2020)

Positions is another strong album of Grande’s career, and third on our list, because it feels like she took everything she had learned that worked for her in the past and put it together in one album.

She knows her fans love when she’s vulnerable in her writing, but she also knows they love a fun pop hit like “34+35.” Grande said that she wanted to emphasize singing on the album since the album before, thank u, next, was heavily focused on trap sounds.

Positions is also consistent with the aesthetic Grande has always incorporated in all her albums, either visually or sonically, and that is the retro-style aesthetic. The cover has her in a classic ’60s side-swept style, and the music video for “34+35” has fembots, inspired by Austin Powers. It’s incredible that Grande manages to keep a certain aesthetic throughout her albums but portrays it differently each time. The confidence she had in her creative choices also shows in the music, like in the opening track “shut up.”

Positions proved that Grande only improves with each album she releases. It’s another emotionally vulnerable album, but she also sings about a new love and being open to moving on. It focuses on the anxieties a relationship can have but also how empowerment can be found in one.

2. thank u, next (2019)

Immediately following the release of Sweetener, “thank u, next” is a product of its time and reflects what was happening in Grande’s personal life. Not only did she have to deal with the grief of losing fans at her Dangerous Woman show in Manchester, UK, but a lot was also going on in her personal life.

Her former partner, Mac Miller, tragically passed away unexpectedly. At the time, she was engaged to comedian Pete Davidson, until that was called off as well. thank u, next is a product of her grieving and moving on from her prior relationships, making it the most vulnerable she’s ever been in her music.

The timeliness of it also made it so effective to resonate with fans. She dropped the lead single, “thank u, next”, on November 3, 2018, just two months after releasing Sweetener, and it became her first Number 1 song of her career. Following that, she released the next single, “7 rings” and “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored.” All three singles occupied the number 1, 2, and 3 spots on the Billboard Top 10, making Grande the second to achieve that milestone since The Beatles.

thank u, next is iconic for the time it was released as well as Grande really diving deeper into her vulnerability. In a world where people are used to being told to hate their ex, Grande approaches the sensitive topic differently and instead says you should be grateful for what your former lovers have taught you. thank u, next is second on our list because of Grande’s vulnerable songwriting and the cultural impact it made.

1. eternal sunshine (2024)

Her best album and number 1 on this list happens to be her most recent release: eternal sunshine. Truly her most mature album, Grande calls back to the R&B and trap sounds but makes it sound ethereal on this album. Produced mainly by Max Martin and Grande herself, she spent most of the time recording it while filming Wicked and going through a divorce.

Where thank u, next teaches fans to be grateful for their past experiences with love, eternal sunshine takes a different approach when it comes to healing and moving on from a relationship.

Inspired by another Jim Carrey movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), her album touches on themes of grief that come with ending a relationship and wanting to forget the person, but ultimately realizing the experience made you who you are.

eternal sunshine shows her growth and maturity as an artist. She’s no longer concerned with making pop hits (she naturally makes them, anyway), but she truly expresses themes and her experiences in life with her music, which makes it so resonant with fans.

The album has so much depth with songs like the title track “eternal sunshine” and “twilight zone” which is featured on the deluxe titled brighter days ahead. It’s completely different from anything she’s given us before and it feels like she’s her most authentic self in this album. It’s number 1 on our list because of its cohesive theme and lack of concern of proving herself as a pop star–it naturally solidifies her as one of the greatest artists of our time.

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As long as Ariana Grande is making music, we are here to listen to her perspective on love and life, and moving on. While we anticipate the release of Wicked: For Good and Focker In-Law, listen to all seven of Grande’s albums, and let us know your number 1 pick!

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