Ariana Grande
photo: barbie simons · cc by 3.0 ↗A Boca Raton kid who came up through Broadway and Nickelodeon, Ariana Grande turned an outsized four-octave voice and a habit of covering the singers she idolized into a pop career built on runs, whistle notes, and confessional, meme-fast songwriting. From Yours Truly's doo-wop-pop through the trap-inflected Dangerous Woman, the diaristic thank u, next, and beyond, she's stayed most recognizable as a vocalist first — an interpreter of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston's melisma filtered through 2010s pop production.
Grande has repeatedly named Carey as one of her two defining vocal touchstones, the source of the stacked runs, breathy head voice, and whistle-register flourishes she reaches for on ballads and bridges alike.
listen forCue up Vision of Love, then Dangerous Woman — listen for the same climbing, note-bending runs and that airy top register Carey basically invented for pop radio and Grande grew up chasing.
Grande has said Whitney and Mariah "pretty much cover it" when asked about her vocal influences — Houston's church-trained power and clean, effortless belting are the other half of the template Grande sings from on her big ballads.
listen forPlay I Will Always Love You next to My Everything — same enormous, unforced power in the chest voice building to a full-throated peak, just routed through a different generation's production.
Grande has called Heap her all-time favorite artist and has said Heap's music shaped the sound she was chasing on her debut; she's returned the favor directly, reworking Heap's "Goodnight and Go" as her own track with Heap credited as a co-writer.
listen forPut on Heap's stark, vocoder-laced Goodnight and Go, then Grande's own goodnight n go — same title, same bones, a trap pulse dropped underneath Heap's original melody and chord changes.