Ariana Grande Drops New Album and Video, Blasts Grammys for 'Lying' About Why She Won't Be There

Ariana Grande has released her second album in six months, riding on the success of her post-breakup song "thank u, next." The album of the same title was released Friday and came with a surprise music video starring "Riverdale" star Charles Melton.

The video, for the track "Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored," features Ariana trying to convince Melton to dump his girlfriend and get with her instead. The bizarre twist is that the girlfriend looks eerily like Grande in appearance and style.

The only way it could have been creepier is if she'd played the girlfriend herself with some split-screen magic. That would have made the video's twist ending a bit more challenging, though we've seen amazing things with technology. It would also fit the narrative of the song "thank u, next," when Ariana sang about the new love in her life.

In the video, it's the titular girlfriend who wears Ariana's signature ponytail and it's only after Ari decides to pursue this girl's man that she adopts the style and creates the doppelganger effect. The video and song are both creepy and alluring in the way Lifetime's "You" is.

While there is no track called "Pete Davidson" on this album, there is a song that seems to address their whirlwind romance and subsequent breakup this past October. On "ghostin," Ariana sings, "I know that it breaks your heart when I cry again / Over him."

This could be a reference to her previous relationship with Mac Miller, who died of an overdose in September, a month before she and Davidson split. "You been so understanding, you been so good," she sings. "And I'm puttin' you through more than one ever should / And I'm hating myself 'cause you don't want to / Admit that it hurts you."

The song is hopeful and promises "We'll get through this, we'll get past this, I'm a girl with / A whole lot of baggage / But I love you." So it may not be a reference to Davidson at all, as they clearly didn't get past it. Is she referring to a new relationship, perhaps, or is this message perhaps from that time in her life before she and Pete broke up."

"thank u, next" was released five months and 22 days after her last album, "Sweetener." Coincidentally or not, the Manchester bombing that has also impacted Ariana so much these past few years happened on 5/22.

The new album features 12 new tracks, kicking off with "imagine" and featuring the title track and Ariana's latest smash hit, "7 rings." But fans hoping to enjoy Ariana performing music from her latest album at this Sunday's Grammys a are already disappointed.

The singer pulled out of performing and even attending the event after a dispute with producer Ken Ehrlich that went public. Ehrlich said she'd pulled out because she felt it was too late to pull a show together, but Ariana disputes his version of events.

The core of the dispute appears to be all about song choice. Ariana wanted to perform her latest single "7 Rings," but Ehrlich explaiend to ET, "We discourage artists from doing new songs, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is then that song has a leg up in someone's mind for next year."

His reasoning is that the Grammys platform might unfairly give "7 Rings" a better shot at winning next year when it becomes eligible, so they prefer artists stick to the music for which they received their nominations this year. The Grammys aren't even ready to say completely that she's out, though Ariana seems pretty adamant about it.

Her face has been plastered on billboards and advertising everywhere from buses to radio so they certainly have a vested interest in having her appear. Right now, it's not looking promising but there are still a couple of days to pull off a miracle. Maybe they'll set up an epic surprise.

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