InTune Jan 15

InTune Today’s music

January 2015

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Track List Fifth Harmony Introducing: The 1975 Miley Cyrus Cover Story: Ed Sheeran

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Interview: Nick Jonas One Direction Ariana Grande

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It’s noon on a Thursday and the five members of Fifth Harmony are destroying a half-dozen bags of Mexican takeout. The girl group earned it, working up a sweat with its choreographer at a dance studio in North Hollywood. Both in rehearsal and out, the members are a whirlwind of hair, giggles and shouts. “They have a lot of energy,” their instructor says with a wink. A small mountain of luggage is stacked by the door, and outside, a couple of black SUV limos wait to ferry the quintet away to the airport. The former X Factor stars’ three-person management crew hovers over laptops and smartphones in the break room, buzzing about scheduling and travel plans.

“You know that saying, ‘It takes a village?’ “ asks Fifth Harmony’s Camila Cabello, 17, the previous night at The Orlando Hotel in Los Angeles. Lauren Jauregui, 18, finishes the thought: “Well, we literally have a village.”

In 2012, these five arrived at Simon Cowell's neon podium as competitors. During the elimination boot camp, they were made into a group by Cowell, and clicked. A few episodes in, viewers renamed them Fifth Harmony: First choice LYLAS (Love You Like a Sister) was already taken by Bruno Mars' aspiring-pop-star siblings, and 1432 (pager code for "I love you, too") was, as Cowell put it, "just crappy." The quintet ranked third on The X Factor's second season, but its first single, "Miss Movin' On," reached No. 76 on the Billboard Hot 100, and 2013's Better Together EP debuted at No. 6 on

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the Billboard 200. A spate of awards and nominations followed -- Radio Disney, Teen Choice, People's Choice and MTV's Video Music Awards -- and now the group is finally releasing its full-length debut, Reflection, which arrives Feb. 3 on RCA with a less poppy, harder-edged hip-hop/R&B sound.

"The whole girl-power thing wasn't as heavily intertwined before -- we're more aware of it now," says Cabello. Reflection is preceded by the brash single "Boss," a female empowerment anthem that shouts out the first lady in its hook: "Michelle Obama/Purse all heavy, getting Oprah dollars." The track not only hit No. 43 on the Hot 100, it also scored the girls an invitation to the White House last December.

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"When we walked in, Michelle was singing the song," says Dinah Jane Hansen, 17. "She acted

like we had been friends for years." Normani Kordei, 19, whispers, "I was blown away." The moment had extra significance that would have been lost on the girls' overseas X Factor cousins in One Direction. "We're all minorities doing a major thing," says Cabello. She was born in Cojimar, Cuba, and is now part of a musical melting pot of Latina, African-American and Polynesian heritage.

"We like that when girls look at us, they don't see perfect little blond-haired, blue-eyed Barbie dolls," says Jauregui. "We all have different body types and different skin.� "We have different Barbie dolls, too!" adds Cabello, referring to the line of dolls made in their likeness that Mattel released in 2014."We couldn't afford Barbies when I was little," she continues.

The others go quiet for a beat, until Jauregui

breaks the silence: "That's amazing, then, that now your face is on one." They all high-five each other.

Despite the group's made-for-TV start, the members show convincing chemistry, channeling the power of the strong women they say they admire: BeyoncĂŠ, for her embrace of feminism; Taylor Swift, for reclaiming her dating rep with "Shake It Off"; and Meghan Trainor, for encouraging positive body image on "All About That Bass." (The lattermost contributed to Reflection, co-writing second single "Sledgehammer.") Those influences have inspired Fifth Harmony to adopt more mature lyrics, too. But do they worry about losing their Disney-weaned listeners?

"Have you heard mainstream pop?" asks Jauregui. "A lot of people are really exploring their

sexuality. And, honestly, we're 17 to 21 -- so that's a realistic topic for us." For better and worse, it also is a public topic. The next morning at rehearsal, Jauregui is bleary-eyed.

The bandmates of a recent ex, The Vamps' Brad Simpson -- whom she dated for eight months, until December -- implied that they had all "had a bit of a go" with her in an interview. But her own comrades quickly struck back, standing up for Jauregui on Twitter: "The amount of sexism and immaturity is astounding," wrote Cabello.

A couple of hours later, problem addressed and online drama simmered, the members of Fifth Harmony look fierce as they run through their new album's self-affirming title track, singing at their own reflections: "Mirror mirror on the wall, should I even return his call?�

(First appeared in Billboard January 2015)

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What The 1975 have achieved in the last 12 months most musicians don’t manage in a lifetime. Four acclaimed EPs, a top-20 single, supports with The Rolling Stones and Muse, and an American tour. It makes you wonder what the synth-pop four-piece dream about, because it all seems to be happening for them in reality.

Some people have all the luck, you might think bitterly, but The 1975’s success is the result of a decade’s hard work. Matty Healy met fellow members George Daniel (drums), Ross MacDonald (bass) and Adam Hann (guitar) in his early teens at high school, and they’ve been playing together ever since, honing their skills under different names in Manchester before becoming the inventive stadium-bound act they are today.

One of the band’s first tastes of the rock star lifestyle strangely came from playing at an old people’s centre near Macclesfield, where they “used to play bingo and there was a little

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stage”. A councillor started putting on gigs for the youths there – the classic, ‘there’s nothing for the kids to do round here’ argument – and the bingo hall became the centre of an unlikely scene.“The first gig we ever played was there, to a room of about 250 kids who were all going absolutely mental, and once we came offstage we decided, right, that is it – that’s what we want to do with the rest of our lives.”

Under different monikers – Talkhouse, The Slowdown, Bigsleep, Drive Like I Do – the band played around Greater Manchester, waiting for both the right moment and for a fanbase to really grow. After making a video for the track ‘Robbers’, they got a call from their now manager Jamie Oborne, who came to a rehearsal.

In the end they signed to Dirty Hit, a label set up by their manager, and born out of his frustration with major labels turning down his acts. “It took ‘Chocolate’ being in the top 20 in order for us to get offers from majors in the end,” the frontman continues. “We didn’t sign a major label deal.”

Sticking to their guns has proven the right decision – they weren’t firing blanks. Now, fans everywhere are investing their faith in what The 1975 are creating. As far as Healy’s concerned the whole process has been a “blessing in disguise” that’s enabled the band to stockpile songs without the pressure many hyped bands have to suffer. There was no expectation when their material was written. They were just four kids from Manchester playing for each other.

“When people got into our band we had the attitude of, ‘Well, if you like that, we can do that.

It’s what we do!’ Everything’s very true to our vision. It’s an extension of ourselves, so when people support that it instils a lot of confidence in you.”Nothing brought more confidence than when ‘Chocolate’ hit the top 20. “That’s when things first got really big,” Healy says, “and it was weird because you imagine everything coming together like that, but you’ve no idea it’s actually going to happen.”

Having written without an audience in mind, Healy’s heart is very much on his sleeve, which is one of the central reasons he hopes the record will connect. The band is an extension of himself and we couldn’t agree more. Like the music, he’s honest, sincere, erudite, and endearing. They have just finished their North

American tour and are now spending

time on their anticapted 2nd

album coming this summer!

(First appeared in Clash

February 2013)

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Miley Cyrus ON HER VMAS PERFORMANCE I know what I’m doing. I know I’m shocking you. When I’m dressed in that teddy bear thing, I think that’s funny. I was saying yesterday, I had this obsession about this character that’s like an adult baby. Like if you see a baby do something like that it’s so warped and weird, but there’s something creepily hot about it. So when I’m in that teddy bear suit, I’m like a creepy, sexy baby. But I forget that it’s, like, people in Kansas watching the show. That people sit their kid in front of the TV and are like, “Oh, an awards show!

Let’s watch.”

ON BEING IN THE SPOTLIGHT I said I was going to take a year off before I made this record. But it’s hard to take a break. It’s almost depressing when you’re not working. You’re so used to people calling your name, and that energy, and when you

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don’t have it anymore. That’s why I never complain about people wanting autographs or pictures. Because if there were a few days where no one asked, I’d probably be like, “What the fuck’s going on? Do people not like me?” I hate the paparazzi – but when they’re not sitting there waiting for you, you’re like “Who’s bigger news? Who are you trying to get a picture of?”

ON HER ROLE MODELS I watch people like Dolly [Parton]. Dolly knows what she is. She’s smart. She’s not just a blonde with big titties – she is a genius under there. She literally came from nothing, and now you go anywhere in the world, and they know Dolly Parton. It’s like, don’t let people’s judgment define who you are. Don’t read the comments and get nervous. Know who you are.

ON HER FAMOUS TONGUE I just stick my tongue out because I hate smiling in pictures. It’s so awkward. It looks so cheesy. Now people expect it, like, “Put your tongue out!” It’s just easier that way. Taking pictures is so embarrassing.

But there’s also something about it that I think is cool. Every other girl is so serious – like, this is my moment on the red carpet, I’m in my ball gown, looking pretty. There’s something empowering about what I’m doing right now. Especially having “short hair don’t care.” I think it’s empowering for girls. Because there’s not one thing that defines what beauty is.

ON MEDIA OUTRAGE I think it’s all marketing. If a website is like, “We love Miley’s performance!” I don’t think people are gonna click on it. “Miley’s cute performance with teddy bears!” – no one is gonna click on that. So I think it’s the media riling up the people, rather than people riling up the media. And what makes me kind of sick is, Trayvon Martin’s trial didn’t happen more than two months ago. It got talked about a lot – but it still got done being talked about a lot quicker than the VMAs. And that’s really sad.

For about two days, it was on Twitter and everything, everyone had their pictures as Trayvon – and then two days later, where was it? Who cared anymore? Even I was like, “I want to help his family when it’s an appropriate time.” But then people just

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forgot. It slips your mind. We go on to the next thing, our next problem. It’s like, “Why are we not still dealing with that? Why are we not still mourning that loss?”

ON HER WORK-LIFE BALANCE I try to not work too many Sundays. At least on Sunday nights, I try to chill out a little bit. I call it Sunday Funday. Before I got my chef, it would be like Chinese takeout, chill by the pool. Every Sunday, I try to get in my pool for at least a little bit and just chill with the dogs. Have a second to reset my mind, get ready for Monday.

Not really do anything, just be home. I look forward to those days.

are listening to, like Michael Jackson’s Bad, because it’s so fucking dope. I want people to listen to my album like that. There’s a line Ludacris says on my album that goes, “If I die before my time, at least I’ll still be living through my music.” That’s something I’ve said over and over again. Like, I have one Pixies record that is a time for me – from the time I was 16 until I was 18, the Pixies is all I listened to. And I’m going to be that artist to so many people, so I want to make sure my record is the best it can be. I’m trying to set a new standard for pop music. So it has to live up. (First appeared in Rollingstone September 2013)

ON HER VERSION OF STARDOM I want to be the cool chick that everyone wants to be friends with. I want the people who watch my shows or watch my videos to be like, “She looks like the most fun person to hang out with ever. I want to be that girl’s best friend. I want to party with her.”

It’s like, if you’re hanging out with Beyoncé, it’s almost like you’re hanging out with a goddess. She’s like a real queen. It’s a different realm. Where my thing is kind of the opposite. My shtick is I’m the homey.

ON HER LOVE OF MUSIC I’m just around music all the time. Even today, I woke up this morning, went in to my jam room, and I just jammed. I’ll sit in there and jam all day. My chef loves it, ‘cause every morning I’m down there playing the piano. I’m writing pretty much all the time. Sometimes I think other people don’t get it – to them, it seems like all I do is work. But you can’t shut off from this.

ON HER NEW ALBUM, BANGERZ It’s coming out soon, so right now I’m listening to it 20,000 times to make sure it’s perfect. I have to make sure every detail is perfect. There are albums that people still

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Ed Sheeran He has sold millions of records, toured America with his best friend Taylor Swift and just released his latest album

In October, Ed Sheeran took a well-deserved vacation He got a text from director Peter Jackson, asking him to write a song for the latest Hobbit film. “I thought the text wasn’t real, because I was like, ‘Isn’t everything just great today?’”

It was another surreal moment in the life of the mild-mannered, diminutive Brit, who has become one of pop’s unlikeliest stars.

Sheeran, 23, grew up in rural Suffolk,

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England, and spent years playing coffeehouses and crashing on couches before breaking worldwide with 2012’s multiplatinum +, which was full of hooky, heartfelt folk pop, tinged with subtle electronic touches.

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He has since played the Grammys alongside his mentor Elton John (“Before the camera was rolling, he was like, ‘Ed, this is the worst time to get your cock out.’ He can remove your nerves by being a bit inappropriate”), drank margaritas with Paul McCartney, and played 66 shows with Swift, before selling out three nights at Madison Square Garden himself.

“To see the growth of it is mental,” he says, sipping a Coke in a conference room at Atlantic Records in New York, just after returning from L.A., where he played Sir Elton’s Oscar party. “I sat next to Donatella Versace, which was random. I don’t really have much in common with her, but she seemed nice enough.”

The stakes were high for X. So Sheeran wrote more than 120 songs in three years and cut tracks with producers like Rick Rubin, Pharrell Williams and Benny Blanco. “I wanted raw, honest songs from the heart,” he says. “When you hear that Kesha-Pitbull song, you know it’s a hit, but it doesn’t make you want to cry or laugh or sit in a corner for five hours just repeating it.”

Sheeran began seriously working on the album last summer, when he moved into a house in

Venice, California, that belonged to George Harrison’s son, Dhani. Initially, Sheeran had a hard time focusing. “I feel like everyone in L.A. loves the kind of hype that comes around a new artist coming over, but I was taking everything with a pinch of salt,” he says. He grins while recalling one epic party including friends Swift, Ellie Goulding, Gavin DeGraw and Snow Patrol.

“We just passed the guitar around and drank all night. It was fucking wicked.”

But the Hollywood scene got old fast. Sheeran, who’d been in the U.S. virtually nonstop for eight months, was burnt out and feeling homesick. He’d hang out at a local dive bar called the Brig, where he’d do shots of Fireball cinnamon whiskey.

The album that emerged is packed with what Sheeran calls “songs about drunken regret and comedowns from certain things.” “Sing” (produced by Pharrell) is about secretly drinking at a dry industry party, and the funky, R&B-flavored “Don’t” is a screed about a real-life fling with another singer that grew ugly when she slept with Sheeran’s close friend while he was staying in the same hotel. With lyrics like “Me and her, we make money the same way/ Four cities, two planes the same day,” Sheeran

“When I said I wanted to play Madison Square Garden, a lot of people said I was nuts. And I made sure I did it. ” 16

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Taylor and Ed teamed up to write some songs for Taylor’s album Red, and have stayed in touch. “My competition at the moment is probably somebody like Taylor,” Ed told InTune. “It’s a healthy competition. She’s someone to aspire to because she’s one of the biggest touring acts and record-selling acts on the planet. That’s where I want to be and I’ll work up to that point.”

knows who fans will think it’s about. “It’s 100 percent not about Taylor,” he says. “Taylor’s one of these people that if you piss her off and she writes a song about you, it’s not good news for you. I’ve never dated Taylor.

I’ve dated a few singers, though.”

Sheeran did play the song for Swift after writing it. “She was just like, ‘Whatever happens, ever, between us as friends, I never want to piss you off that much,’” he says.

Swift has also been sharing her new music with Sheeran. “It’s really fucking good,” he says. “She’s stepped up her game.”

Sheeran has slowed down lately, cutting out alcohol completely as he promotes the record and prepares for a massive tour. “This is my working stage,” he says. He can sometimes sound like an artist manager speaking of sales figures and strategy (“MSG was a good footprint on the industry,” he says).

“He’s one of the most ambitious people I’ve met,” says Mike Rosenberg, a.k.a. U.K.

singer-songwriter Passenger, who has known Sheeran since he was about 15. “I think he’s going to take over the world at some point.”

“I’m more calculated than people think,” Sheeran admits. “When I said I wanted to play Madison Square Garden, a lot of people said I was nuts. And I made sure I did it.

And when I said I wanted to sell 4 million albums, and we were stuck on 2.5 million, I went to the States and got on the Taylor Swift tour and made sure I did it.”

Even so, Sheeran manages to come across as an unassuming guy who could still be at home playing coffee shops. “Sometimes I feel like this isn’t my life at all, that I’m just living someone else’s life vicariously,” he says. “I know that at some point, my career is not gonna have the same trajectory it has now. But by the time I have kids, I can always be like, ‘Look, I met this person, and I partied with this person. And I had a wicked time.” (First appeared in Billboard April 2014)

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About a year ago, Nick Jonas hit a dead end.

The Jonas Brothers’ days as purity-ring-rocking boy-band kings were long over, and the sibling trio had canceled a planned reunion tour and album in the face of low demand. “There were a couple of months of sitting around and doing nothing,” says the singer, 22. “Then I woke up one morning and I thought, ‘This is not my life.

I’m going to go work that much harder.’” His relaunch as a solo artist worked: Jonas’ ultracatchy single “Jealous” is a Top 10 smash, he’s dating former Miss Universe Olivia Culpo, and his half-naked photo shoots have turned him into a grown-up sex symbol. “It’s really bizarre, to be honest,” says Jonas. “I’ve never had a song like ‘Jealous.’ It’s pretty flattering.”

InTune: What was it like being in a band with your brothers? Be honest!

Nick: The pro is that you have a really good support system. The con is that you’re with the same people every day for a long time, which, if you’re family or not, can be a lot at times.

But we all have a good relationship and actually really enjoy our time together. It was a lot of fun. I got to perform at the White House five or six times, and I went to spring training with the Dodgers, which was a highlight of my entire life.

But there are also things that are embarrassing, like looking back at your middle-school yearbook. Especially the emphasis on our relationships. That can mess with your head. We had a pretty huge female fan base, so we had to make a concerted effort to keep things private and say we didn’t have girlfriends. I feel bad about it now. I probably hurt some people.

InTune: You guys spend a lot of time together.

Do things ever break down after a while?

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Nick: My brother Joe used to forget the lyrics a little bit. [Laughs] There have been a lot of times when I’ve had to help him out onstage.

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So how does it feel, now that he’s on his own?

“It’s definitely been an adjustment,” Nick admits. “The creative process is different in that it’s just me and there’s no democracy.” But all in all, he says, it’s being able to have that freedom that makes the tough times worthwhile. “I can just make decisions on my own and roll it out that way.”

The fans know the words to every song, so they can kind of help as well.

InTune: Do you think you’ll ever reunite with the Jonas Brothers?

Nick: I don’t know. My life has changed so much in 12 months that I can’t predict what tomorrow is going to bring, you know? It’s hard to imagine saying “never.” But for this moment in time that I’m in right now, I don’t see that happening.

InTune: What’s the biggest difference between your life now and what it was like being famous the first time around?

Nick: I think part of the beauty of being a pop phenomenon is that you’re going 1,000 miles per hour, and it’s all happening – and that’s also the hard part about it. It’s very easy to get used to certain things going at that speed, with that frenzy behind it. But it’s not necessarily the foundation for the best, longest-lasting career.

This time around, I’m trying to set up a foundation so that I can do what I love for the rest of my life. I see my career as not just music, but as hopefully an entertainer on all mediums, and someone who can have real influence and make great art.

Nick: Elvis, for sure. He was one of the first ones to do acting and singing at the same time, and he’s obviously an icon. On top of that, I think that Justin Timberlake has done a good job of not only transitioning from where he started, but also balancing acting and singing.

InTune: Do you listen to much new music? What have you been loving lately?

Nick: The new D’Angelo album is my favorite.

Specifically the song “Betray My Heart.” It’s amazing to hear someone with so much soul be that creative with melody.

InTune: You’re 21 now—do you feel like it’s time to target an older crowd?

Nick: It definitely comes with challenges. There are a lot of different ways you can approach coming to maturity, but the one we took is to continue to grow with the fans and take our time with it because it’ll last longer.

InTune: What’s been your key to success overall?

Nick: It’s about having a good team and just making sure they’ve got your back when you have a project that you’re passionate about.

(First appeared in Rollingstone January 2015)

InTune: Who are your biggest role models?

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It’s been a big year for Britain and the British.

There is currently another British phenomenon attracting global attention. Five boys aged between 21 and 23 are pushing Britain’s international standing stratospherically upwards in (and as) One Direction.

Harry Styles, 21, Zayn Malik, 22, Niall Horan, 21, Liam Payne, 22, and Louis Tomlinson, 23 – who all auditioned for The X Factor in 2010 as solo artists but were thrown together as a band by Simon Cowell – have (despite coming third in the final) broken recording history.

They were pulled from Doncaster, Bradford, Wolverhampton, Dublin and Cheshire respectively, to be transformed into world-straddling agents of profit. They are the first UK group to reach number one in the US charts with their debut album, which means they outdo even the Beatles, and have a following that currently eclipses that of Justin Bieber.

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To those people who haven’t given your albums a listen before, why should they? “You know, I think, why not?” Harry asks. Louis talks about there being something for their fans on the record, but also something for their fans’ parents – an 80s-influenced seam that might be found nostalgic. “Like, we’re doing a signing today, [because] it’s incredible to give back to the fans. And you only have to look at how overwhelmed some of them are, even just for a meeting with us, it’s incredible. And I think, as a parent, there’s your purpose. You know, we’re hopefully making people happy,” What motivates this band? “Giving back to the fans.” We’re talking about how normal the boys are. Louis: “We’re normal lads.” Zayn: “We’re normal guys.” “We feel most at home when we’re sat writing, or on stage, that’s our thing,” Liam tells me. “There’s no real getting away from it.”

The new album is your fourth in three years, I say. How long can you maintain this pace before you melt? Liam says: “It’s an often-asked question. But I think we’re feeling pretty good.

We’ve just had a couple of days off, actually.”

Have they made any sort of pact? That if one member wants to leave, the band folds? Louis: “No, we haven’t really. What do you mean?”

Liam: “No, we haven’t spoken about that.”

Zayn: “What would the pact entail?” Liam:

Louis corrects him: “A couple of weeks off.”

Liam: “Couple of weeks off, yeah. Couple of weeks. So we’ve been chilling. But we’re all pretty hard-working. We just enjoy it more than anything. It’s not a question of burnout.”

“Well, I don’t know if it will [fold]. Without any of us ... Yeah, I don’t think it will, I think that’s the magic of it. We still feel like we’re on our rise a little bit.”

“We’re just making the music that we love.” Yet for all the fun and verve contained in a new-album track such as Girl Almighty, theirs is still music targeted squarely at one market, the clue to which is in that song title. They’ve put out decent pop since 2011. They’re pushed to their best when Ed Sheeran contributes a track or two per release cycle. Harry, we learned this summer, has been writing on the sly with Ryan

Have they made any sort of pact that if one member wants to leave, the band folds? “No, we haven’t really.” says Louis.

“What would the pact entail?” says Zayn. Liam responds “Well, I don’t know if it will fold, I think that’s the magic of it. We still feel like we’re on our rise a little bit.”

Tedder, the songcrafter-supreme behind some major Beyoncé. Niall is a lifelong fan of Daltrey and the Who. Zayn’s meant to be deep into his hip hop. But until the boy band actually gather for that somber press conference (as boy bands do), discussion of their split must remain misty and speculative. (First appeared in The Guardian November 2014)

“It’s incredible to give back to the fans – you only have to look at how overwhelmed they are.”

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The 21-year-old singer from Florida is the brightest new international star of 2014.; one of the fastest-rising careers in music.

Grande was an adolescent musical-theatre stalwart who moved into children’s television before turning, in her late teens, to the business of applying her multi-octave ‘Baby Mariah’ vocal range to commercially sure-fire pop. The Swedish producer and songwriter Max Martin – responsible for every other song you have heard on Radio 1 in the past 20 years – has entrusted Grande with a few can’t-miss hits, while she has maintained an edge of credibility courtesy of interesting collaborators such as the cult Canadian R&B producer The Weeknd, Big Sean, and Zedd (she has also worked with Harry Styles).

Her single ‘Problem,’ topped the UK charts in July this year. By August, Grande’s work made up 30 per cent of the US Billboard top 10: Problem, its follow-up, Break Free, and Bang Bang, another UK number one by Jessie J on which Grande is a featured vocalist alongside Nicki Minaj. The only other female artist who has matched that triple feat is Adele.

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‘I’ve been going non-stop for seven months,’ comes her playful (but with a hint of reproach) reply. ‘I haven’t slept in about seven months. So that’ll probably do it as well.’Grande came off her prescribed bed rest to shoot a video for her next single, the gothic-R&B ballad Love Me Harder, and didn’t finish until six this morning. The recording of her debut album, 2013’s Yours Truly, was a drawn-out process as she searched for her sound.

She found her groove with this year’s My

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Everything, which gave her a second number-one album within 12 months, but with this grown-up sound came issues about her new, matching style.

An example? ‘Well, I posed in a cute outfit with some kitty ears on and with my middle finger flipped up and posted it on my fan page,’ she says. (Unlike a lot of pop stars, Grande takes personal responsibility for her social media accounts.)

‘And my fans were like, “YES GIRL! OK!” A lot of my fans have grown up with me.

But at the same time, a lot of people were like, “She’s changing! What’s happened to you?” I’m like, “It’s just a pic, y’all. I’m still the same old me. I’m just posing in a cute way!” A lot of people go ape over one photo.’ She shrugs. ‘But it’s just a photo.

I’m still the same person I’ve been since I was four years old. Literally. Obviously, I’m a mature adult. But I’m still the same girl. I’m still Ariana from Boca who loves musical theatre, who loves her family, who loves the beach, who loves animals.’

At the age of 14, she was living in New York with her mother and her brother, having scored a role in a Broadway children’s musical called 13. When she was 15, they moved to LA, where Grande won a role in the chirpy sitcom Victorious. But she concedes that she found ‘straight’ acting, and the celebrity that went with it, far from wholly fulfilling. ‘I was adjusting to these new things – red carpets, and people wanting pictures with me, and people taking pictures of me when I didn’t know they were being taken,’ she says. ‘There was a lot of weird superficial nonsense that sprouted from it that I definitely wasn’t

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And should any record label executive or video director try to force her into a particular role? ‘I will never succumb to that,’ she shoots back. ‘And I think that’s because of my mother, and because of my family. I come from a strong, loud Italian family. We don’t take shit from anybody. But as somebody who’s also very sensitive and likes to please people, it’s conflicting for me,’ she admits. ‘Because a lot of the time I like to say, “OK! If you say so!” ’ Ariana says that her follow-up will be more expansive, with a wider list of collaborators.

Electronic superstar Zedd worked on a track, which Grande says is “fantastic and super-experimental for me. I never thought I’d do an EDM song, but that was an eye-opening experience, and now all I want to do is dance.”

used to. It was very weird. I just really liked performing.’ When she was 17, her wish came true: she signed a record deal.

Those ‘tools’ have been tested recently.

Grande is keen to fend off manipulation by an industry that does all it can to hypersexualise its young female talents. She is also aware of the responsibility that comes with her profile. ‘To me the idea of being a role model is just being yourself,’ she says.

‘And being unapologetically yourself, whatever that means. Whether that’s just me simply dressing sexier on some days and more conservatively on other days because that’s how I wake up feeling, I believe in authenticity.’

And she certainly seems determined to value her fans. After that wee-hours New York gaybar gig, she returned home to her apartment to find ‘30 kids outside’. Rather than be freaked out, ‘I took them all down into my garage and we took pics and had fun.”But she is aware of the reports of demanding behaviour. ‘It’s funny how a certain amount of success comes with a certain amount of weird, inaccurate depictions of you,’ she says. ‘But I feel like it will die down because it’s not something that I pay into. Things can only last so long when there’s little truth to them. So that’s why I don’t trip over it.’

‘It’s weird to me,’ she continues, ‘because I do see myself as a fairly positive, very friendly person. So it’s kind of odd. I also think a lot of people don’t know what the word “diva” means. If you want to call me a diva I’ll say, “Um, well, cool.” Barbra Streisand is a diva; that’s amazing. Celine Dion is a diva; thank you. But if you want to call me a bitch, that’s not accurate. because it’s just not in my nature.’

So Ariana Grande, buoyed by success, family, faith and fans, is focusing on the positives.

Those include her new album ‘My Everything’ and her headlinging shows on the Honeymoon Tour, which starts this February.

(First appeared in The Telegraph October 2014)

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