Ariana Grande has opened up about her ‘Bye’ lyrics and how her mother taught her not to be afraid of leaving a relationship.
Eternal Sunshine is arguably Ariana Grande’s most candid album to date. Over the course of all 13 self-written songs, Ariana uses nuance, kindness and wit to address everything from her new relationship with Ethan Slater to her divorce from Dalton Gomez. On top of that, Ariana also touches on how it feels to be the subject of intense public scrutiny over her dating life.
Now, Ariana has explained how her mother, Joan Grande, inspired her song ‘Bye’ and why the lyrics mean so much to her.
In ‘Bye’, Ariana sings about having the courage to finally end things with someone. In the first verse, she says: “This ain’t the first time I’ve been hostage to these tears / I can’t believe I’m finally movin’ through my fears / At least, I know how hard we tried, both you and me.” Ariana hasn’t specified who it’s about but fans think it alludes to her split from Dalton Gomez.
Discussing the meaning behind her ‘Bye’ lyrics with Zach Sang, Ariana said that she wanted to root the song in empathy: “I desperately didn’t want it to sound like a ‘fuck you’. I wanted it to sound like ‘I need to leave, so, bye.'” Tearing up, Ariana then revealed: “The reason why I felt like it was okay to go there is because of my mum, honestly.”
Ariana then explained: “I think growing up you want what you don’t have. My parents got divorced for all the right reasons. They weren’t supposed to be together. You kinda crave, when you grow up, the happily ever after, the one is the one. You ignore all these issues. You cling on to that fairytale, you kind of self abandon.”
She added: “I think my mom is a fierce example of not doing that. I was like, ‘Oh, wow, I want to be so much more like her than I am.’ I want to have the strength to say, ‘bye’, kindly when something isn’t fucking right. It’s as simple as that. She’s the strongest and most brilliant person I know.”
Ariana Grande – bye (lyric visualizer)
Ariana also said that the reason why ‘Bye’ is disco-inspired is because it’s Joan’s favourite genre. She said: “And it’s also a disco track, which is my mum’s favourite thing in the world. It kind of feels like my mum’s song or something that I wrote from my mum’s perspective almost, because that’s something that I watched her do a few times.”
She ended by saying: “That’s kind of a pattern that I realised I don’t need to be afraid of because it means doing the right thing, it means listening to your soul and not be afraid to be uncomfortable.”
