Ariana Grande is a big name in the music industry today with so many records in her name. She is a Grammy Award winner and the first solo artist to be on top 3 spots of the Billboard 100 with ‘7 Rings’ at the first position. Grande got a kickstart in her career with an appearance on ‘Victorious’, a sitcom on the Nickelodeon. She was among the 100 most influential people across the world by Time in 2016 and 2019. In 2018, she got the ‘Woman of the Year’ title by Billboard and was one of the highest-paid celebrities of the world as per the reports of Forbes in 2019. Along with Grammy, the star received one Brit Award, three American Music Awards and two Billboard Music Awards.
So, what is the net worth of Ariana Grande? How she grew as a singer and actress in the industry and how does she spend her money? Let us discuss some of her major achievements in the field and all the controversies that she was put in throughout her journey to fame.
What is Ariana Grande’s net worth?
According to several reports, Ariana Grande’s net worth as of now is $100 million, which is going to increase with her new releases, endorsements and lucrative tours in 2020. The 26-year old artist is all set to break records!
Ariana Grande Net Worth
| Net worth: | $100 million |
| Born: | June 26, 1993, Boca Raton, Florida |
| Age: | 26 |
| Residence: | Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor, Singer, Songwriter |
| Website | www.arianagrande.com |
| Height | 5 ft (1.53 m) |
| Weight | 47 kg |
What made her a millionaire at this young age?
According to reports, Ariana holds multiple hit albums in her kitty that made millions over the years.
Her album, Dangerous Woman of 2017 earned $630,000 per night on an average. The album bagged an estimated amount of $50,000 in the merchandise sales each night, getting a total of $4.7 million over a week of its release.
Her first album, Yours Truly in August 2013 had featured appearances by big stars like Mac Miller and Big Sean. The album sold around 120,000 copies in the first week, reaching the number one position on U.S. Billboard Top 200 charts. Not just this, the album was at #1 on iTunes in more than 30 countries overnight.
Ariana started her career as an actress and songwriter, which got her a respectful salary. She was first recognized as a talented actress for her role of ‘Cat Valentine’ in Victorious, a sitcom on the Nickelodeon. As per the reports of TMZ, Grande earned $9000 for every episode. Additionally, she earned $7000 for the songs she wrote for the show, which includes $4000 for the theme song and $3000 for other songs in the episodes. For a small track of 20 seconds, she was paid $1500.
Her earnings are not just confined to acting and singing, but through her endorsements and fragrance line with LUXE brands. Over two years of the launch of her 3 perfumes, the star earned over $150 million.
According to Nelson Music, Ariana earned a whopping #1.7 million from her albums, Yours Truly, her Christmas & Chill EP and Dangerous woman.
| Years | Her Work | Income Contributed To Net Worth |
| 2017 | Dangerous Woman Tour (Album) | Brought in $71 million (Dhs 260 million) |
| 2015 | Honeymoon tour | Brought in $40 million (Dhs147million) |
| 2014 | Nickelodeon’s series Victorious. | $9,000 (Dhs33,000) per episode |
| 2013 | “Yours Truly” (Debut Album), and album’s lead single, “The Way” | In eight months brought in $40 million. |
How she spends her fortune?
A lot can be assumed from her songs about how she likes spending her income – breakfast at Tiffany’s, her famous ponytail and bottles of bubbles.
She is interested in making real estate investments. When engaged with Pete Davidson, a comedian, she purchased a lavish apartment in the New York City worth $16 million. She lived there with her fiancé for a short while before they separated.
Back then, Davidson told G.Q. proudly, “She’s like, ‘This is our house,’ and I’m like, ‘You’re very nice for saying that. Thank you for letting me stay here. She’s like, ‘We’re getting married!’ And I’m like, ‘I know, thank you for letting me stay here.”
The high-rise Chelsea building designed by Zaha Hadid boasts an IMAX theatre and juice bar other than the luxurious interior and beautiful outdoor seating. The star still likes spending time with her mother in her Boca Raton home, which is estimated to be of $2 million.
Her tattoos
She loves being fashionable and spends a lot on her tattoos by famous artists. At present, she has more than 20 tattoos, which includes the latest Spirited Away, an Anime character on her arm, a Harry Porter ‘lumos’ on her hand and a crescent moon on the neck.
The star doesn’t spend all her earnings on herself, but also donates to charities. The profits from the Atlanta tour were donated to Planned Parenthood, an organization she supports. Dr. Leana Wen, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund President, told People, “Ariana Grande’s generous donation comes at a critical time — in Georgia and across the country, anti-women’s health politicians are trying to ban all safe, legal abortion.”
We can’t miss mentioning her pet collection! She owns a pig, Piggy Smallz, who she earlier shared with former fiancé Pete Davidson. She also has 9 dogs as pets. However, they are all rescues.
What are the controversies she was put in on her journey to fame?
Like any other celebrity, Ariana has been seen in controversies since her first work as an actress on Nickelodeon’s sitcom, Victorious.
In the year 2011, Alexander DcLeon, the lead singer of The Cab tweeted saying, “hope none of my fans ever have the displeasure of meeting @ArianaGrande. The most stuck up, disrespectful person I’ve ever met in this industry.” This was two years before Grande’s debut album, Yours Truly.
The controversy of Sam & Cat
A year after her debut album released, “Sam & Cat”, the spinoff of Grande’s Victorious with co-star Janette Mc Curdy was pulled down only after its first season. The spinoff was a combined series of two Nickelodeon shows, iCarly and Victorious. McCurdy played ‘Sam Puckett’ on ‘iCarly’. There were rumors of McCurdy being unhappy about her salary as compared to Ariana’s. However, Ariana responded to the rumors as “absolutely ridiculous”. To the contrary, McCurdy stayed mum, not addressing the rumors from the front-end. She was also not mentioned in the heartfelt statement on the end of the series. By then, Grande’s debut full-length album was already a massive hit.
The controversy about Ariana acting like a Diva
In 2014, fans said Grande was acting like a Diva after her first success. She was accused of being rude to the contest winners and paparazzi, as she chose when and how she should be photographed. However, she refuted all the claims.
In the same year, Bette Midler criticized her in an interview with The Telegraph, when asked about his views on ‘pornification of pop music. He told The Telegraph, ‘Don’t have to make a whore out of yourself to get ahead.’
In a surveillance camera video that surfaced in the year 2015, Grande, with her unique ponytail was flirting with one of the backup dancers. She kissed him and was licking donuts for sale. When an employee brought another tray of donuts, Grande told her friends, “I hate America, I hate Americans.” Grande apologized for her behavior after the video surfaced saying, “I should have known better how to express” She also added that she was extremely proud of being an American. She clarified her statement saying her reaction was an outcome of the frustration with America’s high child obesity rate. She was unhappy with the unhealthy donuts.
Her Reaction
Well, her reaction did surface as a big controversy as she was a rising star back then.
In a Seventeen magazine interview of 2017, Grande said she was bullied on the sets of Victorious. The star of the show, Victoria Justice, addressed this on The Meredith Viera Show, saying that Grande apologized to Justice over text and contended that she was talking about someone she worked with on Broadway.
The Manchester attack post her concert
Later in the year 2017, Grande’s concert tour stop Manchester in England was targeted by terrorists. There was a bomb blast that injured over 800 people and killed 22. Grande was broken with the incident. She has been talking about her post-traumatic stress disorder ever since she witnessed the gory attack.
Controversies about her love life
Grande has been making headlines for her multiple relationships, but she didn’t know her break up with Mac Miller with put her in so much trouble. In May 2018, the pop star broke up with Mac Miller, a Pittsburgh rapper. After a few months (in September) of their breakup, the rapper died due to an overdose of fentanyl and cocaine. Grande said he had been struggling with substance abuse lately, and as per her statement, it was the reason that ended their two-year relationship.
Soon after her breakup with Miller and before his death, Ariana started dating Peter Davidson, the famous Saturday Night Live comedian. She even wrote a song for him, ‘Peter Davidson, ’ and recorded it in the Sweetener album. After one month of Mac Miller’s death, she broke up with Davidson. It was a very short relationship of just four months.
‘Thank You, Next’ Controversy
In February 2019, ‘Thank You, Next’ released with a track having the same name that originally got released in November, 2018. The single track had lyrics that reflected her past relationships, like her short-timed affair with Davidson. In the same year, she was in the nominations for two Grammys, partly because of the massive popularity of the album and partly because of her Sweetener tour. The title of the album is today a cultural reference.
Now here’s the story, she didn’t even go for the Grammy’s, let alone her not performing at the event.
Grande wanted to perform on ‘7 Rings’, one of her hits on the ‘Thank You, Next’ album, but both its video that was about to come on the album two days before Grammy’s telecast faced controversy.
In the video, she displayed a tattoo on her hand with Japanese characters. Grande expected the characters would read ‘7 Rings’ in the Japanese language. But going with the apparent translations by the fans or observers, it said ‘BBQ Grill’. Grande fixed it, so it now reads, ‘Japanese BBQ Grill.’
This incident got her into quite a trouble, as there were accusations against her of appropriating Japanese culture by displaying a tattoo in another language, of which she didn’t know the meaning. She is also accused of marketing merchandise with Japanese writing.
Justifying herself, Grande said that there’s a lot of difference between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation.
The complete story of ‘7 Rings’ controversy
It didn’t end there! The video of 7 Rings also accused the star of intending to appropriate the ‘black culture’, as did the stylings and lyrics of the song. It first appears as an ode to “My Favorite Things”, Richard Roger’s classic song from ‘The Sound of Music’.
People are still accusing Ariana of not paying homage or appreciation to the black artists, but plagiarizing the similar songs by Princess Nokia, Soulja Boy and 2 Chainz.
One of the Japanese critics contended Grande to be trying to promote herself using different cultures about which she knows nothing.
Wanna Thompson, a critic, wrote in Afropunk that by using the same house as used in a 2 Chainz song and Black women in the video to show off her coolness, the pop singer has turned into “yet another white pop star clinging onto marketable imagery of the hood to push her ‘bad girl’ persona.”
Her defenders did point that she has always been influenced and produced by black artists like Pharell Williams.
In a nutshell
Even after facing so many accusations, hate and unacceptable rumors, Grande is today a popular and successful music artists in the industry. With a net worth of $100 million, Ariana Grande believes there’s a long way to go.
