Fans were surprised on Sunday, January 26, when Ariana Grande changed the lyrics to her hit single “Thank U Next” during her Grammy Awards performance. Instead of singing “I’ll be thanking my dad / ‘Cause she grew from the drama” — which are the song’s original lyrics — the 26-year-old belted out, “I’ll be thanking my dad because he is so awesome.”
The change came after Ariana reconciled with her previously estranged father, Edward Butera. After years of not speaking, it seemed like the family has mended their relationship. Edward walked alongside Ariana and her mom, Joan Grande, on the Grammy Awards red carpet just before she hit the stage to perform.
Previously, in November 2019, the whole family spent Thanksgiving together. Ariana took to her Instagram Stories on November 28, 2019, and shared a selfie with both of her parents alongside the caption, “First Thanksgiving with both of my parents in 18 years.”
For those who don’t know, the singer’s parents split when she was only 8 years old, and she has had a strained relationship with her dad for years. Back in 2014, she opened up about her dad and told Seventeen Magazine that she had been “out of touch with [him]” for over a year.
“It took me so long to be okay with it. The thing that got me there was embracing the fact that I am made up of half my dad, and a lot of my traits come from him,” Ariana said at the time. “So much of me comes from my father, and for so long, I didn’t like that about myself. I had to accept that it’s okay not to get along with somebody and still love them.”
Fans first started to notice that Ariana was spending time with her dad in in December 2016 after Edward ha tweeted a selfie with his famous daughter. After that, shared a snap of her and her dad FaceTiming on Christmas in 2018 — it appears that things have gotten better since then!
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