It's a good Friday for Ariana Grande fans, because the 22-year-old singer's third album, Dangerous Woman, dropped. For those who've already listened to it (and probably more than once), you know that there are quite a few guest artists, including Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and Future. There's also another artist who may surprise some, since she hasn't really been in the spotlight (save for her Fuller House cameo) recently. Yes, I'm talking about Macy Gray assisting Grande on "Leave Me Lonely." Their collaboration might have people wondering how Ariana Grande and Macy Gray met, because, yeah, it's a bit random. That said, they really have fate to thank for their connection and creating a song that is pretty hot, if I do say so myself.
Basically, Gray and Grande coming together for the former Nickelodeon star's new album is all thanks to chance. While chatting with Fuse on Tuesday, Gray opened up about recording "Leave Me Lonely" and how the collaboration happened. She dished,
Long story short: I went to meet with a writer name Wendy Goldstein. She’s the head of A&R at Republic Records, the label that Ariana’s on. I just went in to play her stuff. They were just in the middle of finishing the album, and they had that "Leave Me Lonely," and at the time, the person who wrote it was just singing on it, just to show whoever was gonna sing it how it would go, and so it was kind of a demo. And Wendy asked me to do it, and said "Let me check with Ariana," and then two days later we were in the studio and I went and cut it.
Now, if they met prior to this, it's unclear, but really their relationship isn't as random as it seems. I mean, they are both extremely talented artists, so why wouldn't they sing together? Plus, Grande loves to surprise her fans and do the unexpected. As the "Dangerous Woman" singer told ThisIsRnB in March about having Gray on her album, "I like an unexpected feature... I don’t want to do the obvious." Well, she definitely accomplished that.
When Gray sang the song, she said that she didn't need much direction from Grande or the producers, "I really just sang it. It was almost kind of like it was written for me. It was right up my alley. I didn’t have to work too hard."
If you think their friendship stops at the recording of "Leave Me Lonely," you'd be wrong. Gray told Fuse that Grande helped with her new album, too. "When I went it to do Ariana’s song, me and the producer, Tommy Brown, we really hit it off," she said. "It was me, him and Tommy Parker. We’ve been writing ever since. We came up with the freshest stuff. It’s blowing my mind. I can’t wait til people hear it. Ariana kind of hooked me up."
See? They appear to have a connection for life. I mean, just look at what Gray tweeted Thursday about Grande's album release. I think it's safe to say that their so-called random collaboration has formed a strong bond between the two.
