Make way, Fred Stobaugh -- Ariana Grande's grandma is taking over! According to Billboard, Grande's grandmother, Marjorie Grande -- referred to by the pop star as Nonna (meaning grandma in Italian) -- has overtaken the late Stobaugh as the senior-most artist ever to appear on the Hot 100 chart.
The news comes as Grande's new album, Eternal Sunshine, enters the charts. The album landed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and the song "Ordinary Things" -- on which Nonna is billed as a featured artist and a co-writer -- debuted at No. 55.
"Ordinary Things" closes with a clip of Nonna giving her granddaughter a bit of advice as she reflects on her late husband, Frank. "Never go to bed without kissin' goodnight," Nonna shares. "That's the worst thing to do; don't ever, ever do that. And if you don't feel comfortable doing it, you're in the wrong place -- get out."
Of her decision to include the soundbite, Grande told Apple Music 1's Zane Lowe, "I always record my Nonna, because you never know what she's going to say. I had this 30-minute voice note of her and her friend Shirley talking... I think it's a little bit of, 'Wow, our loved ones, our friends and our family have the ability to instantly just sort of soothe and calm and simplify things that are so complicated and heavy at times.'"
Lani Grande, Marjorie Grande, Ariana Grande, and Joan Grande onstage during 2018 MTV Video Music Awards
The 98-year-old claims the record from Stobaugh, who was 96 when "Oh Sweet Lorraine," by Green Shoe Studio featuring Jacob Colgan (the song's vocalist) and Stobaugh (its writer), spent a week on the Hot 100 in 2013 at No. 42.
It isn't Nonna's first soundbite on a Grande song, just the first that she's been credited as an artist. Majorie has also been heard on "Daydreamin" from Grande's 2013 debut album, Yours Truly, and "Bloodline," from 2019's Thank U, Next.
Eternal Sunshine marks Grande's fourth consecutive No. 1 album. The album's hit single, "We Can't Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)," marks her ninth No. 1 single on the Hot 100 chart, breaking the record for the most #1 Hot 100 debuts by a female artist.
It's a triumphant release for the 30-year-old songstress, who dropped her seventh studio album following her divorce from Dalton Gomez and amid her subsequent romance with her Wicked co-star, Ethan Slater.
Earlier this month, during an interview on The Zach Sang Show, Grande offered clarity about writing her new album during an emotional time in her life.
"Even at my most heartbroken or my most pained moments of the past few years, there was so much kindness, there was so much love, there was so much honesty and transparency and respect," Grande shared. "So even at the hardest moments of the loss and the grief that you hear on some of the album, some of the heartbreak stuff, there was so much love and transparency."
For the artist, even her "heartbreak" songs weren't meant to be vindictive but rather cathartic.
"That was something that I really wanted to make sure was captured. It wasn't like a 'F**k you' at all, or ever... I tried to make sure it was kind and giving credit for trying and for the goodness that there was," Grande explained.
"That was like a tricky balance for me, because I definitely had some sessions where I was writing more emotionally and reactively," she added. "But that's also very human. So I didn't want to erase all of it."
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