GRANDE DAME

Ariana Grande might just have one of the year’s best albums, writes Dee Locket

IN CASE it wasn’t already established from Ariana Grande’s debut album, she’s a pop megastar in the making.

Grande is set to release her followup to Yours Truly next week, and we’ve already heard a few of its tracks: her summer smash Problem and her Zedd collaboration Break Free and most recently her soulful Big Sean duet, Best Mistake. So far she’s three for three and, with the MTV Video Music Awards taking place tonight, MTV has previewed four new songs from the album.

The first, Love Me Harder, which features Canadian singer The Weeknd, is

a sizzling track that sees Grande command her lover in a smouldering tone to do better if he wants to stay with her. The Weeknd steps in to plead that she knew what she was getting into before teasing her with a bit of his typically sensual shtick.

Be My Baby is even better. It’s the kind of song I imagine Aaliyah might’ve gravitated towards, and it works surprisingly well for Grande. She adorns the track with her Mariah Carey-esque falsetto, while singing suggestively about wanting a man who knows how to “drive (her) crazy”. The last two songs are more aligned with the big ballads she’s known for, but they have far more depth than anything she’s ever done.

From the sound of these songs – and everything else we’ve heard – it seems that Ariana Grande could have

one of the best albums of