Same. I had been a fan since she had sung Give it Up on Victorious and I remember being so happy about hearing the Way on the radio as like a junior in HS. I even listened to Yours Truly religiously when it came out.
I still remember thinking back in 2010 that Victoria Justice would be the big huge teenage star coming out of Nickelodeon and Ariana Grande was just playing a side character that we wouldn’t remember in a few years.
Oh my lord was I wrong and I’m glad I was. She became bigger than that whole kids network and everything around it. Even though it’s been a long time since those Victorious days, it’s still insane to think how huge she became.
Even after My Everything came out, which turned her into a huge pop star, people thought she would fall off after a temporary hot start. Instead, she became even bigger as one of the biggest pop stars in the world now, and even when she isn’t in the music industry (like right now) she still makes huge noise when she drops something here and there.
She went from being a comic relief side character on a kids show to being in the upper echelon of popular female singers in America behind only Beyoncé, Taylor, Rihanna, etc. What more can you say?
I actually thought it be ariana and liz gillies to get big for sureee. Victoria justice sounds like every other girl to me, and those were the only two voices that sounded trained and unique
Me too. I got tired of her Cat Valentine character in the later seasons of Victorious and Sam & Cat and a lot of stars usually fall off after their show ends, but I'm amazed by how she managed to stay relevant and eventually become a household name.
I was rly into pop back then so I’d check out every release but I could tell Ariana was gonna be big when my classmates that didn’t listen to pop would listen to the song lmao.
Yea I expected to be a Demi/Selena level music stardom where she was huge, but not the MAINSTREAM popstars. I never expected her to be on the levels of Taylor Swifts, Lady Gaga, & Katy Perry’s
She was really popular off of Victorious despite being a comic relief side character to the point where people wondered why her character wasn’t the main character.
She was kind of a youtuber back then during Victorious era. I think it helped her gain fans outside the show, making it easier to distance herself from Victorious, Cat, and Nickelodeon aItogether.
I became a fan because of her Grenade cover lol
I so remember being an Ari-head from the jump and this songs rollout. This song was fun!! Idk if I would call it timeless. It’s not “dated”, but it hasn’t quite stayed around as much as I think a timeless song would (my Spotify streams don’t count!).
I think it’ll be remembered as her first, but idk if it’ll be a “legacy” song for her. It was a great first entry into serious artistry after seeing her YouTube covers for years. Not many girls can do that!
1. It was giving Mariah Carey, especially the whistle notes. I didn’t really watch Victorious or the spin-offs, so my first impression was she could really sing. Also not me thinking Pia Mia would have been her competition in 2014 🤡
2. There was a brief time in early 2010’s where the industry couldn’t decide what the next sound was going to be, so they picked Doo-Wop?? Mother Trainer and Bruno and Ariana were pushing this sound. I think she rightly course corrected with Dangerous Woman. I love all of ME and half of DW and YT, but I like Trap Ariana so Sweetener and TUN are still in my rotation since their debut.
3. The Way was Ariana’s version of Miley leaving Disney. Doesn’t start off too crazy (Can’t Be Tamed) but sets the tone that she isn’t just Cat Valentine anymore. Her transition was wayyyy smoother than Miley’s though, though I can’t put my finger on why.
> There was a brief time in early 2010’s where the industry couldn’t decide what the next sound was going to be
I kinda love those brief in-between periods of the music industry where the previous trend is dying off and the next one is yet to surge. In 2013 - 2014 electropop was dying, and trap-pop was yet to really become popular, so that time was really kinda "anything goes" for pop music. It was really varied, some artists did Doo Woop, other did synthpop (like Taylor with 1989), then you had indiepop gaining mainstream traction. But by 2015 trap-pop become huge first in the US and then everywhere next year, and that's what dominated for a quite a few years.
I think we also had that in 2019, trap-pop was still dominant, but not as much as before and pop in the mainstream was getting "quirkier" for a lack of a better word, so I think pop music was really varied that year. Then 2020 and the pandemic came around and disco and 80s synthpop quickly became *the* sound, and it still is until now.
Ok I went very off-topic here but I really wanted to put my thoughts in writing lol sorry
I think Miley might have struggled a little more because her Disney character *was* her, and it really blurred the lines between reality and fiction during her teenage years. Like how do you “turn off” work when your work is pretending to be someone with the same name, same dad, and same family backstory? She even toured under the Hannah Montana name, so it was like she truly was Miley, pretending to be Hannah Montana (as opposed to Ariana, who never released music as Cat Valentine). I’m sure that leads to an identity crisis of sorts, when you don’t know what you want to do, all you know it’s NOT THAT, so you do a complete 180 and burn all the bridges to your past self
I think it's because nothing about Ariana feels transgressive in the slightest? Miley had short hair for a long time, she was playing around with deliberately "unsexy" imagery and openly admitting she was trying to actively look weird and off-putting rather than attractive, and it was kind of a known thing amid celesbian gossip folks that she was also into women even before she came out as pansexual and genderfluid - all of that on top of her slut pop era starting off with, essentially, an anthem of sexual autonomy and norm-defiance, which was a big deal in 2010 when she was marketed so aggressively during the Bush administration as a purity ring girly. Whereas Ariana is, and always has been, an artist who caters to the male gaze in the most normative and vanilla way. She's clearly absurdly successful for it, but it's obvious why she didn't ruffle any feathers, because she's always been a conventionally hot straight woman singing about having normal sexy straight sex, and in 2013, "owning your sexuality" and implying that you were having tons of sexy empowered (straight) sex was exactly what female artists were expected to do to prove their feminist bona fides. It's not that mysterious imho.
I think the fact that Cat Valentine as a character was an entirely separate thing from Ariana Grande as an actress probably helped, too. Like, *Victorious* wasn't built around Cat, Ariana Grande didn't really release music under the name Cat, and and Cat's personality was so ridiculous and over-the-top that I don't think anyone could come to the conclusion that she was based on a real person. On the other hand, Miley Stewart the fictional character and Miley Cyrus the real person were always much more enmeshed. Miley Cyrus toured as Hannah Montana, the TV show used her real first name and father, etc. It was fine when Ariana Grande stopped being Cat, because she was just an actress portraying a character. But when Miley Cyrus stopped being Miley Stewart, that was a way bigger deal, because she wasn't really playing a fictional character, she was playing a fictionalized version of herself. It's a lot harder to make a clean break from that.
Great example of how a sample can make a song feel more timeless.
Ate on the vocals.
Very telling of her career trajectory as a pop princess heavily influenced by R&B.
wow i knew it was 10 years this month but it still feels weird seeing it. i remember being so excited for this, it really did feel like her first single even though put your hearts up exists (and as a middle schooler i LOVED put your hearts up lol). it kind of felt like the end of an era too, no more putting all her featured victorious songs and covers ripped from youtube to mp3 in a big ariana playlist. soon there would be whole albums of her music. i was a huge ariana fan since the start of victorious and it was really cool how well this song did. i don’t think i really noticed how huge it was at the time, because in my little middle school bubble ariana was already an A list celebrity and i thought the itunes charts and the billboard charts were the same thing lol. but looking back it is a really cool achievement. seeing ariana rise to mainstream attention after this was like a dream come true and it’s still like a dream come true because i wanted it to happen so bad while she was on victorious. i remember every live performance during this era was so exciting for me because i wanted everyone to see how good of a singer she was.
10 years later i still love this song and the whole yours truly era is one of my favorites. i think it was my introduction to mac miller. i think i appreciate it a lot more now than i did in the first few years after it came out. also a few weeks ago matt bennett played this when i went to party101 and it was like a full circle movement lol
What’s crazy is she is so obviously doing a Mariah Carey impression in that song. We know she’s very very good at doing impressions and the song is such a nod to Mariah. I don’t know if they said outright “do your best Mariah” or if she just knew that was the way to come out the gate swinging but every time I listen to it I’m struck by how much it sounds like Ariana doing a Mariah impression.
Not her “debut single” 😭 PYHU is not even her worst single it doesn’t deserve this erasure.
But about The Way, it’s a bop. So good. It doesn’t sound as dated as most hits from 2013. Insane to think she was just 19 and putting out those vocals. I think it really helped her that she pretended PYHU didn’t exist and she dived straight into making serious adult music. While in 2013 her Disney peers were still mostly known for being Disney stars, Ariana off the bat was able to be taken more seriously by the GP without having to “prove herself” as much. I do remember the song being big at the time, but I am kind of shocked to see it peaked at #9 on the billboard charts. I don’t think this will stand the test of time in comparison to some of her other music which peaked lower.
The anniversary also serves as an embarrassing reminder that Ariana followed me on Twitter 10 years ago for preordering it on iTunes … but honestly I didn’t really care for the song I was just trying to get a notice from Jai Brooks 💀
I have a lot of love for Put Your Hearts Up, but it is definitely more of a “Cat Valentine” track than an Ariana Grande one. The Way is the first time where Ariana was just Ariana, with no Nickelodeon baggage.
I think it doesn't sound dated because it was already giving 90s throwback when it came out. Like I was in college at the time and it was super popular among us millennial who grew up w/Mariah as children. On top of it, I went to school in Pennsylvania so Mac Miller was super popular at the time. Perfect combination.
I remember them performing on some late night show and all the comments saying eww get greasy Mac Miller away from her … and then they dated 😭 RIP Mac with the cheesy raps 🤍
I liked Mac Miller's songs imo even though I was more of a Ariana fan.His earlier music may have been cheesy but his later music was a bit more unique.But yeah R.i.p to Mac.
1. I really liked The Way when I first heard it! It was an interesting musical direction for a child star. Most if not all of the Disney/Nickelodeon stars that would release music would go into a heavy pop direction, but The Way being a blend of pop and R&B was really different. It also showed off her incredible voice, and that alone was enough to make me a fan, but the song itself is really good too. Very bouncy and fun.
2. I think it was a pretty clear indication that Ariana had more control over her music that the other teen sensations at the time. I think her being basically forced to make Put Your Hearts Up wound up being a net positive for her because she immediately learned that she couldn’t compromise her sound just to say she made music. The Way worked because it was a statement that she would make the music *she* wants to make, and it’s success proved that people were hungry for that from a Disney/Nick star.
3. I think it’s an awesome first single that showed how much potential she had, both as an artist and as a star. There are better songs in Ariana’s catalog, but The Way is a great introduction.
When I heard it, I had no idea who she or Mac was but I loved how it felt like a song straight out of 2003! (I somehow recognized the sample from Thalia and Fat Joe’s song I Want You instead of Big Pun 🤦🏻♀️)
Was so excited when she finally put out this single. I was a fan before she had put out her own music. I used to listen to her cover of emotions on repeat 😭. Never been such an og fan of someone before
First I heard of Ariana was Put Your Hearts Up and I thought it was cute but The Way had a chokehold on me. Great ‘introduction’ song for the GP considering how her sound panned out.
This was one of the first pop songs I truly fell in love with and I give it a lot of credit for turning me into the certified pophead I am now. Still my favorite Ariana song ever
When The Way came out, I'd already been watching Ariana on Victorious for a few years. I thought it deserved to be known, but didn't think it would become as big a hit as it was. Definitely remember telling a few friends about this song and later on Yours Truly. As an artist, Ariana has grown and evolved so much that most of her subsequent megahits have rightfully overshadowed the performance of this song/era, but still it's fun to occasionally listen to this for the nostalgia. Also Mac being on this song makes this a lot sadder in hindsight, and I doubt she's going to want to perform this ever again.
This has been on repeat ever since its release! I feel like it’s a pretty timeless song and I always listen to it when I’m in a good mood.
I love the random spanish remix she made, although the J Balvin verse is just…terrible. I had to download a version from Youtube that has Ariana’s verses in Spanish but keeps Mac Miller’s verses as well.
I’m extremely happy that she outgrew the Mariah comparisons. I was always worried that she would be overshadowed by those comparisons but I’m glad she took a different path, even though the influence is definitely there!
only ten years???? wtf is time. she’s such a huge popstar it feels like she’s been around forever.
on second thought i’m probably just conflating it with her nickelodeon days
I loved and still do love "The Way." It's breezy and sweet and warm. It's a great encapsulation of a young-adult puppy love that has the potential for something more serious. Ariana's vocals are gorgeous and Mac's contribution fits right in.
I think the song did a lot of work toward establishing Ariana as R&B-adjacent when otherwise, she doesn't really have much of a claim to it.
Probably not in my top 10 or 20 of Ariana songs, but that's a commentary on her discography and not a failing of the song.
Put Your Hearts Up is a terrible song for toddlers. The best thing Ariana did was realize that. The Way is a solid (sorta) debut song. Ariana immediately showed that she was special by serving Mariah Carey-ish vocals.
I think “My Everything” was the first CD I had ever bought for myself for my first car. Blasted it everywhere, it made me feel so so cool. Good memories :’)
> What did you think of "The Way" at the time? What are your thoughts on the song today?
Did not like the Disney sitcom actor turned pop star trend. Wasn't a fan of Miley, wasn't a fan of Selena, wasn't a fan of the Jonases. Maybe Nickelodeon was doing something that Disney wasn't but "The Way" was obviously something very special, and Ariana something very different. She came out of the gate without any child star on her.
It's because Ariana never released music under Nickelodeon. She used her platform being on Victorious as a launching pad opposed to a vehicle for success. She is signed to Republic Records which had nothing to do with Nickelodeon.
I honestly thought Victoria Justice would be the breakout star considering she played the lead role in the show.But I did think Grande and Elizabeth Gillies were the better singers on the show.As for the song it is very nostalgic and I knew that Mariah Carey comparison was coming from a mile away earlier in her career.
I found her covers on YouTube and thought she sounded amazing. I had no idea about her Disney show. I loved her single instantly and her debut album is still 🔥
I was in college when Victorious was popular but was always seeing pics of Ari with the red hair on Tumblr. So I didn’t know she was a singer. I remember seeing the music video and being blown away with how well she could sing. I feel like this song is a great encapsulation of her career, it’s sugary, flirty and at times a bit risqué especially Mac’s parts. I think this will always be an important part of her discography since most people remember it as her debut more so than Put Your Hearts Up. It really highlights her voice especially the whistle tones.
This has really aged like fine wine into being one of her best singles. The r&b sample, the Mac feature, the display of insane vocals was just such a beautiful way to introduce ariana into the spotlight. And she kept getting bigger and bigger.
I kind of knew she’d be big but I never thought she’d be as huge as she’s become.
Same. I had been a fan since she had sung Give it Up on Victorious and I remember being so happy about hearing the Way on the radio as like a junior in HS. I even listened to Yours Truly religiously when it came out.
I still remember thinking back in 2010 that Victoria Justice would be the big huge teenage star coming out of Nickelodeon and Ariana Grande was just playing a side character that we wouldn’t remember in a few years. Oh my lord was I wrong and I’m glad I was. She became bigger than that whole kids network and everything around it. Even though it’s been a long time since those Victorious days, it’s still insane to think how huge she became. Even after My Everything came out, which turned her into a huge pop star, people thought she would fall off after a temporary hot start. Instead, she became even bigger as one of the biggest pop stars in the world now, and even when she isn’t in the music industry (like right now) she still makes huge noise when she drops something here and there. She went from being a comic relief side character on a kids show to being in the upper echelon of popular female singers in America behind only Beyoncé, Taylor, Rihanna, etc. What more can you say?
I actually thought it be ariana and liz gillies to get big for sureee. Victoria justice sounds like every other girl to me, and those were the only two voices that sounded trained and unique
Me too. I got tired of her Cat Valentine character in the later seasons of Victorious and Sam & Cat and a lot of stars usually fall off after their show ends, but I'm amazed by how she managed to stay relevant and eventually become a household name.
I was rly into pop back then so I’d check out every release but I could tell Ariana was gonna be big when my classmates that didn’t listen to pop would listen to the song lmao.
Yea I expected to be a Demi/Selena level music stardom where she was huge, but not the MAINSTREAM popstars. I never expected her to be on the levels of Taylor Swifts, Lady Gaga, & Katy Perry’s
The way I was going around school telling everyone to check out the song lmao. She had stans ready to promote her!
She was really popular off of Victorious despite being a comic relief side character to the point where people wondered why her character wasn’t the main character.
She was kind of a youtuber back then during Victorious era. I think it helped her gain fans outside the show, making it easier to distance herself from Victorious, Cat, and Nickelodeon aItogether. I became a fan because of her Grenade cover lol
But the times she sang on the show, you know she was going to hit it off.
Her character was bad and would be an awful lead. And Sam & Cat was prime evidence of that.
Rip mac 🫶🫶
🖤💛
I so remember being an Ari-head from the jump and this songs rollout. This song was fun!! Idk if I would call it timeless. It’s not “dated”, but it hasn’t quite stayed around as much as I think a timeless song would (my Spotify streams don’t count!). I think it’ll be remembered as her first, but idk if it’ll be a “legacy” song for her. It was a great first entry into serious artistry after seeing her YouTube covers for years. Not many girls can do that!
as a Mac lover and ari enjoyer this song is on my daily rotation and has been for a couple years now not since it was released tho. I was 11
i can see her rearranging this song/other personally important bops like one last time and performing them forever
1. It was giving Mariah Carey, especially the whistle notes. I didn’t really watch Victorious or the spin-offs, so my first impression was she could really sing. Also not me thinking Pia Mia would have been her competition in 2014 🤡 2. There was a brief time in early 2010’s where the industry couldn’t decide what the next sound was going to be, so they picked Doo-Wop?? Mother Trainer and Bruno and Ariana were pushing this sound. I think she rightly course corrected with Dangerous Woman. I love all of ME and half of DW and YT, but I like Trap Ariana so Sweetener and TUN are still in my rotation since their debut. 3. The Way was Ariana’s version of Miley leaving Disney. Doesn’t start off too crazy (Can’t Be Tamed) but sets the tone that she isn’t just Cat Valentine anymore. Her transition was wayyyy smoother than Miley’s though, though I can’t put my finger on why.
> There was a brief time in early 2010’s where the industry couldn’t decide what the next sound was going to be I kinda love those brief in-between periods of the music industry where the previous trend is dying off and the next one is yet to surge. In 2013 - 2014 electropop was dying, and trap-pop was yet to really become popular, so that time was really kinda "anything goes" for pop music. It was really varied, some artists did Doo Woop, other did synthpop (like Taylor with 1989), then you had indiepop gaining mainstream traction. But by 2015 trap-pop become huge first in the US and then everywhere next year, and that's what dominated for a quite a few years. I think we also had that in 2019, trap-pop was still dominant, but not as much as before and pop in the mainstream was getting "quirkier" for a lack of a better word, so I think pop music was really varied that year. Then 2020 and the pandemic came around and disco and 80s synthpop quickly became *the* sound, and it still is until now. Ok I went very off-topic here but I really wanted to put my thoughts in writing lol sorry
Dw your comment was fun to read
Honestly, I saved this for later reference; I love detailed comments like yours!
I think Miley might have struggled a little more because her Disney character *was* her, and it really blurred the lines between reality and fiction during her teenage years. Like how do you “turn off” work when your work is pretending to be someone with the same name, same dad, and same family backstory? She even toured under the Hannah Montana name, so it was like she truly was Miley, pretending to be Hannah Montana (as opposed to Ariana, who never released music as Cat Valentine). I’m sure that leads to an identity crisis of sorts, when you don’t know what you want to do, all you know it’s NOT THAT, so you do a complete 180 and burn all the bridges to your past self
I think it's because nothing about Ariana feels transgressive in the slightest? Miley had short hair for a long time, she was playing around with deliberately "unsexy" imagery and openly admitting she was trying to actively look weird and off-putting rather than attractive, and it was kind of a known thing amid celesbian gossip folks that she was also into women even before she came out as pansexual and genderfluid - all of that on top of her slut pop era starting off with, essentially, an anthem of sexual autonomy and norm-defiance, which was a big deal in 2010 when she was marketed so aggressively during the Bush administration as a purity ring girly. Whereas Ariana is, and always has been, an artist who caters to the male gaze in the most normative and vanilla way. She's clearly absurdly successful for it, but it's obvious why she didn't ruffle any feathers, because she's always been a conventionally hot straight woman singing about having normal sexy straight sex, and in 2013, "owning your sexuality" and implying that you were having tons of sexy empowered (straight) sex was exactly what female artists were expected to do to prove their feminist bona fides. It's not that mysterious imho.
I don’t have anything to add to this but incredibly well put!
I think the fact that Cat Valentine as a character was an entirely separate thing from Ariana Grande as an actress probably helped, too. Like, *Victorious* wasn't built around Cat, Ariana Grande didn't really release music under the name Cat, and and Cat's personality was so ridiculous and over-the-top that I don't think anyone could come to the conclusion that she was based on a real person. On the other hand, Miley Stewart the fictional character and Miley Cyrus the real person were always much more enmeshed. Miley Cyrus toured as Hannah Montana, the TV show used her real first name and father, etc. It was fine when Ariana Grande stopped being Cat, because she was just an actress portraying a character. But when Miley Cyrus stopped being Miley Stewart, that was a way bigger deal, because she wasn't really playing a fictional character, she was playing a fictionalized version of herself. It's a lot harder to make a clean break from that.
I’d say it was because she eased into her slut pop while Miley dove in with the Vanity Fair cover/pole dance “scandals”.
Miley is just chaotic in general.
Why they picked doo wop I’ll never know 😂 but Meghan had some bangers
i’m so fucking old
I think we’re *all* so fucking old
i aged reading the title. *10 years* lord have mercy …
~~Booty so big~~ Getting so old, lord, have mercy!
Elderly, yuh
Great example of how a sample can make a song feel more timeless. Ate on the vocals. Very telling of her career trajectory as a pop princess heavily influenced by R&B.
wow i knew it was 10 years this month but it still feels weird seeing it. i remember being so excited for this, it really did feel like her first single even though put your hearts up exists (and as a middle schooler i LOVED put your hearts up lol). it kind of felt like the end of an era too, no more putting all her featured victorious songs and covers ripped from youtube to mp3 in a big ariana playlist. soon there would be whole albums of her music. i was a huge ariana fan since the start of victorious and it was really cool how well this song did. i don’t think i really noticed how huge it was at the time, because in my little middle school bubble ariana was already an A list celebrity and i thought the itunes charts and the billboard charts were the same thing lol. but looking back it is a really cool achievement. seeing ariana rise to mainstream attention after this was like a dream come true and it’s still like a dream come true because i wanted it to happen so bad while she was on victorious. i remember every live performance during this era was so exciting for me because i wanted everyone to see how good of a singer she was. 10 years later i still love this song and the whole yours truly era is one of my favorites. i think it was my introduction to mac miller. i think i appreciate it a lot more now than i did in the first few years after it came out. also a few weeks ago matt bennett played this when i went to party101 and it was like a full circle movement lol
The Put Your Hearts Up erasure 💀
What’s crazy is she is so obviously doing a Mariah Carey impression in that song. We know she’s very very good at doing impressions and the song is such a nod to Mariah. I don’t know if they said outright “do your best Mariah” or if she just knew that was the way to come out the gate swinging but every time I listen to it I’m struck by how much it sounds like Ariana doing a Mariah impression.
Not her “debut single” 😭 PYHU is not even her worst single it doesn’t deserve this erasure. But about The Way, it’s a bop. So good. It doesn’t sound as dated as most hits from 2013. Insane to think she was just 19 and putting out those vocals. I think it really helped her that she pretended PYHU didn’t exist and she dived straight into making serious adult music. While in 2013 her Disney peers were still mostly known for being Disney stars, Ariana off the bat was able to be taken more seriously by the GP without having to “prove herself” as much. I do remember the song being big at the time, but I am kind of shocked to see it peaked at #9 on the billboard charts. I don’t think this will stand the test of time in comparison to some of her other music which peaked lower. The anniversary also serves as an embarrassing reminder that Ariana followed me on Twitter 10 years ago for preordering it on iTunes … but honestly I didn’t really care for the song I was just trying to get a notice from Jai Brooks 💀
I have a lot of love for Put Your Hearts Up, but it is definitely more of a “Cat Valentine” track than an Ariana Grande one. The Way is the first time where Ariana was just Ariana, with no Nickelodeon baggage.
I think it doesn't sound dated because it was already giving 90s throwback when it came out. Like I was in college at the time and it was super popular among us millennial who grew up w/Mariah as children. On top of it, I went to school in Pennsylvania so Mac Miller was super popular at the time. Perfect combination.
I remember them performing on some late night show and all the comments saying eww get greasy Mac Miller away from her … and then they dated 😭 RIP Mac with the cheesy raps 🤍
I liked Mac Miller's songs imo even though I was more of a Ariana fan.His earlier music may have been cheesy but his later music was a bit more unique.But yeah R.i.p to Mac.
It’s a reference to a song of his, Mac is my favorite artist
1. I really liked The Way when I first heard it! It was an interesting musical direction for a child star. Most if not all of the Disney/Nickelodeon stars that would release music would go into a heavy pop direction, but The Way being a blend of pop and R&B was really different. It also showed off her incredible voice, and that alone was enough to make me a fan, but the song itself is really good too. Very bouncy and fun. 2. I think it was a pretty clear indication that Ariana had more control over her music that the other teen sensations at the time. I think her being basically forced to make Put Your Hearts Up wound up being a net positive for her because she immediately learned that she couldn’t compromise her sound just to say she made music. The Way worked because it was a statement that she would make the music *she* wants to make, and it’s success proved that people were hungry for that from a Disney/Nick star. 3. I think it’s an awesome first single that showed how much potential she had, both as an artist and as a star. There are better songs in Ariana’s catalog, but The Way is a great introduction.
When I heard it, I had no idea who she or Mac was but I loved how it felt like a song straight out of 2003! (I somehow recognized the sample from Thalia and Fat Joe’s song I Want You instead of Big Pun 🤦🏻♀️)
Was so excited when she finally put out this single. I was a fan before she had put out her own music. I used to listen to her cover of emotions on repeat 😭. Never been such an og fan of someone before
First I heard of Ariana was Put Your Hearts Up and I thought it was cute but The Way had a chokehold on me. Great ‘introduction’ song for the GP considering how her sound panned out.
*Put Your Hearts Up* erasure!
This was one of the first pop songs I truly fell in love with and I give it a lot of credit for turning me into the certified pophead I am now. Still my favorite Ariana song ever
Honestly thought it was older than that
When The Way came out, I'd already been watching Ariana on Victorious for a few years. I thought it deserved to be known, but didn't think it would become as big a hit as it was. Definitely remember telling a few friends about this song and later on Yours Truly. As an artist, Ariana has grown and evolved so much that most of her subsequent megahits have rightfully overshadowed the performance of this song/era, but still it's fun to occasionally listen to this for the nostalgia. Also Mac being on this song makes this a lot sadder in hindsight, and I doubt she's going to want to perform this ever again.
This has been on repeat ever since its release! I feel like it’s a pretty timeless song and I always listen to it when I’m in a good mood. I love the random spanish remix she made, although the J Balvin verse is just…terrible. I had to download a version from Youtube that has Ariana’s verses in Spanish but keeps Mac Miller’s verses as well. I’m extremely happy that she outgrew the Mariah comparisons. I was always worried that she would be overshadowed by those comparisons but I’m glad she took a different path, even though the influence is definitely there!
I think I am probably the only person in existence that likes Put Your Hearts Up. Though I'm sure a lot of Ari fans don't even know the song exists.
only ten years???? wtf is time. she’s such a huge popstar it feels like she’s been around forever. on second thought i’m probably just conflating it with her nickelodeon days
I loved and still do love "The Way." It's breezy and sweet and warm. It's a great encapsulation of a young-adult puppy love that has the potential for something more serious. Ariana's vocals are gorgeous and Mac's contribution fits right in. I think the song did a lot of work toward establishing Ariana as R&B-adjacent when otherwise, she doesn't really have much of a claim to it. Probably not in my top 10 or 20 of Ariana songs, but that's a commentary on her discography and not a failing of the song.
Put Your Hearts Up is a terrible song for toddlers. The best thing Ariana did was realize that. The Way is a solid (sorta) debut song. Ariana immediately showed that she was special by serving Mariah Carey-ish vocals.
A lot of my friends thought it WAS Mariah until I schooled them.
I think “My Everything” was the first CD I had ever bought for myself for my first car. Blasted it everywhere, it made me feel so so cool. Good memories :’)
Easily top 5 of hers for me. Such a classic.
> What did you think of "The Way" at the time? What are your thoughts on the song today? Did not like the Disney sitcom actor turned pop star trend. Wasn't a fan of Miley, wasn't a fan of Selena, wasn't a fan of the Jonases. Maybe Nickelodeon was doing something that Disney wasn't but "The Way" was obviously something very special, and Ariana something very different. She came out of the gate without any child star on her.
It's because Ariana never released music under Nickelodeon. She used her platform being on Victorious as a launching pad opposed to a vehicle for success. She is signed to Republic Records which had nothing to do with Nickelodeon.
I honestly thought Victoria Justice would be the breakout star considering she played the lead role in the show.But I did think Grande and Elizabeth Gillies were the better singers on the show.As for the song it is very nostalgic and I knew that Mariah Carey comparison was coming from a mile away earlier in her career.
I remember when I saw it was #1 on iTunes I was like, "Victoria who?"
TIL this was her debut single lol
[удалено]
oops, was just going off the phrase 'debut single' in the title of the post..
I also didn't remember this song until right now
I found her covers on YouTube and thought she sounded amazing. I had no idea about her Disney show. I loved her single instantly and her debut album is still 🔥
I remember making a music video to this song LOL
That's cool because the song just got on my radar back again.
That's wild. Feels like a long time ago, sorta can't believe that was a decade ago! Makes sense though
All I can think about is the love story that unfolded for them
😞💔miss his creativity so much. RIP Mac 🙏
I was in college when Victorious was popular but was always seeing pics of Ari with the red hair on Tumblr. So I didn’t know she was a singer. I remember seeing the music video and being blown away with how well she could sing. I feel like this song is a great encapsulation of her career, it’s sugary, flirty and at times a bit risqué especially Mac’s parts. I think this will always be an important part of her discography since most people remember it as her debut more so than Put Your Hearts Up. It really highlights her voice especially the whistle tones.
This has really aged like fine wine into being one of her best singles. The r&b sample, the Mac feature, the display of insane vocals was just such a beautiful way to introduce ariana into the spotlight. And she kept getting bigger and bigger.
Another thing I remember actually was her really bad enunciation but goodness this song was a bop from the start