nine months in 2014 and 2015, three songs, and a break-up nobody has ever said a bad word about since.
the short answer
they dated for about nine months, from mid-2014 to april 2015. she confirmed the relationship publicly in october 2014. they recorded best mistake together, released as a promotional single from my everything, and he features on right there from yours truly. they ended it citing conflicting tour schedules and have remained on good terms.
the timeline
| when | what |
|---|---|
| 2013 | right there, from yours truly, with big sean featured |
| august 2014 | best mistake released as a promotional single |
| october 2014 | she confirms the relationship in an interview |
| april 2015 | they separate, after about nine months |
| since | publicly friendly; both have described it as amicable |
best mistake
the song is the reason this relationship has a page. it is a piano ballad about two people trying to work out what a troubled relationship is going to become, released at midnight in august 2014 as a promotional cut from my everything — during the relationship rather than after it.
that is unusual and it is the opposite of how she would handle the same material later. thank u, next names four exes in retrospect, from a position of resolution. best mistake is written from inside something unresolved, and it is the only song of hers that is.
why it ended
he has since described his past relationships, hers included, as lessons rather than mistakes — which reads as a mild correction of his own song title and is about as much heat as this ever generated.
where it sits
2014 to 2015 is the my everything year: four top-ten singles, the honeymoon tour being routed, and the point at which she stopped being a television actor who released records. the relationship is contemporaneous with all of that and it is a footnote to it rather than the other way round.
it is also, in the longer view, the last uncomplicated one. what came after — mac miller, pete davidson, dalton gomez — was covered at a completely different intensity.
what the songs are worth now
best mistake has had a quiet afterlife. it was a promotional single rather than a proper one, it never charted meaningfully, and it is one of the more-played non-singles on my everything a decade later — which is the usual fate of a ballad on an album otherwise full of enormous uptempo records.
right there, from yours truly, is the other one and it predates the relationship entirely. that is worth noting because the two songs get read together as a couple's discography, and only one of them was made by a couple.
questions people ask
when did ariana grande date big sean?
from mid-2014 to april 2015, about nine months. she confirmed it publicly in october 2014.
what songs did ariana grande and big sean make together?
best mistake, a promotional single from my everything, and right there, from yours truly, on which he features.
why did ariana grande and big sean break up?
they cited conflicting tour schedules in a joint statement and said they would remain close friends.
is best mistake about their relationship?
it is a duet about two people deciding what a troubled relationship will become, released while they were together rather than afterwards.
are they still on good terms?
there has been no public conflict in the years since, and he has described his past relationships as lessons rather than mistakes.