Ariana Gets Bratty About Dating Gossip On New Charli Remix
These lyrics, though.
Ariana Grande has officially joined the Brat movement. The singer is one of the buzziest featured artists on Charli XCX’s remix album Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat, and naturally, she’s on a track that caused a lot of commotion about some rumored pop-star feuding on the original release. But Grande isn’t taking aim at her musical peers — instead, she’s hitting back at the public perception of her looks, personal life, and of course, the dating drama that’s been following her for over a year.
“Sympathy Is a Knife” is causing even more conversation since Grande hopped on the remix. The original Charli XCX song is about feeling insignificant compared to a larger pop star (heavily rumored to be Taylor Swift). But with Grande’s addition, the remixed track is a pained reflection on the pratfalls of fame. For Grande, a major complaint is how unkind the media and public have been about her appearance.
It's a knife when you're so pretty, they think you must be fake / It's a knife when they dissect your body on the front page
The verse comes a couple weeks after Grande candidly shut down rumors that she’s had various plastic surgery procedures.
Grande also appears to take aim at the constant gossip surrounding her love life in the verse: “It's a knife when they won't believe you, why should you explain?” The line reiterates a statement Grande made in a Sept. 30 Vanity Fair profile about her boyfriend Ethan Slater, in which she expressed her annoyance at a false narrative about him.
“There couldn’t be a less accurate depiction of a human being than the one that the tabloids spread about him,” Grande said. “No one on this earth tries harder or spreads themselves thinner to be there for the people that he loves and cares about. There is no one on this earth with a better heart, and that is something that no bullsh*t tabloid can rewrite in real life.”
She was referring to the speculation that her relationship with Slater began as an affair, given that both were recently married as the rumors about their romance began.
It sounds like Grande just needed a bratty moment to get some things off her chest.
