Ariana Grande is recalling a fun memory from the early days of her music career and it involves her ex-boyfriend and late rapper Mac Miller.
In honor of the 10-year anniversary of Grande’s debut album, Yours Truly, the singer is celebrating with a week of live performances, answering questions from fans, and an exclusive merch drop. On Saturday, Grande posted the first round of Q&As on TikTok about her time creating the album.
One fan asked, “Which music video from this album was the most fun to film?” To which Grande immediately answered without hesitation, “The Way.” The single from Yours Truly featured Mac Miller and was in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 at the time.
“We had no budget, didn’t even tell the label that we were gonna do it,” Grande said of the music video. “Made it ourselves, and we said listen, we have a camera, we have a projector, we have music, we have balloons, we got dancers.”
She continued: “We didn’t have any budget or anything, we just made it. [We] showed it to the label, ’cause they brought it up to me. They were like, ‘We need to shoot a music video,’ and I was like, ‘We already did it.’”
The original video features Grande and Mac Miller dancing, laughing, and kissing in a few scenes. The pair would later go on to date from 2016 to May 2018, just months before the rapper died of an accidental overdose in September 2018. In the years since his death, Grande has opened up about their relationship and the “all-consuming” grief she’s experienced.
During Saturday’s Q&A session, another fan asked what three words Grande would use to describe how she feels today when listening to Yours Truly, to which she said, “proud, eternally grateful, and emotional, bittersweet.”
The singer is also releasing live performances of several Yours Truly songs, including “The Way.” In the live version, Grande left Mac Miller’s verses intact but added a string orchestra in the background for his final verse as a way to honor him. The video also ends by fading everything out except for the words, “Feat. Mac Miller.”
Grande also released live versions of “Daydreamin'” “Honeymoon Avenue,” “Baby I,” and more.
