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Ariana Grande: "We Can't Be Friends"

 Ariana Grande has one of the songs of the year, according to the NYTimes--and it's a letter to a former friend. (Critics have suggested it's really a way of talking about a star's relationship with the media, and it's easy to see that layer in the verses.)


Ariana gives her reasons for "an Irish exit." The most recent fight was explosive. "I don't wanna tiptoe, but I don't wanna hide--but I don't want to feed this monstrous fire." What makes the song so interesting is that Ariana concedes something like ambivalence. She isn't simply empowered by walking away; she obviously feels regret (or one-half of her feels regret).

We can't be friends--
But I'd like to just pretend.
You cling to your papers and pens--
Wait until you like me again.

The sense of ambivalence recurs in the strange bridge:

Know that you made me--
Don't like how you paint me, yet I'm still here hanging.
Not what you made me--
It's almost like a daydream...
But I feel so seen in the night...

She seems to have removed herself from a complicated situation--but, also, she hasn't. ("Don't like how you paint me, yet I'm still here hanging.")

The final thing I admire in this song is the title: Ariana addresses her ex, but she also seems to address herself. She needs to remind herself--because a voice in her head wants to argue with reality. (We *can* be friends...)

I'm a fan!

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