Ariana Grande Covered Frank Ocean And We Need To Lie Down

Ariana Grande has just launched her ‘Sweetener + Thank U, Next‘ world tour last night in Albany, NY — and while unfortunately there are no Australian dates yet, we do have something to hold onto, thanks to a high-quality recording of Grande’s Frank Ocean cover.

There were a few surprises during the massive 31-song set: notably, only a few thank u, next songs appear, with Grande reportedly telling the crowd they were “too emotional”. For the record, apparently the set’s stunning: Rolling Stone‘s review was absolutely glowing (even though mic difficulties screwed up the final song, the record-breaking ‘thank u, next’).

You can find the full-set list here, though it doesn’t include Grande’s version of ‘Close To You’, which appears on Ocean’s 2016 album Blonde — itself a cover of Stevie Wonder’s cover of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s song.

That’s because it’s an interlude — which, before you say anything, is actually a Very Good Thing, because that means a full recorded version exists on some hard-drive somewhere. Grande doesn’t mess with Ocean’s version too much: it’s pretty much instantly recognisable, but Grande’s vocals sound great on top of the space-y production. If anything, we’d say Grande leaves behind Ocean’s melancholy in favour of a… sweetened… sound.

It’s by far from the first time Grande’s thrown some love to Ocean — she’s long-tweeted about needing new music much like the rest of us, and during her Dangerous Woman tour, covered another Blonde favourite, ‘Pink + White’.

It’s extremely unlikely, but maybe one day she’ll release a whole Ocean cover album — in the meantime, listen to both below.

Frank Ocean fan @ArianaGrande is using a pre-recorded cover of the singer's song “Close To You” as an interlude on her Sweetener World Tour.

Here’s a video from her tour opener in Albany, NY last night. pic.twitter.com/jFy6paaUCS

— blonded.blog (@BlondedBlog) March 19, 2019