Meaning Behind the Song “get well soon” by Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande’s Sweetener saw the pop princess take on heavier topics than her previous or subsequent work. The album came on the tail end of the year Grande has described as the “worst of her life.” Naturally, her work began to evolve into a band-aid of sorts for both her inner demons and her fan’s collective hurt following a terrorist attack at her concert.

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Grande ping-pongs between opening up her wounds and soothing them across the record. One song that aims to heal is “get well soon.”

Behind the Song

“get well soon” closes out the album on a bittersweet note. Produced by Pharrell Williams, the song features sparse, yet inspiring instrumentation. The lyrics cut straight to the heart of the matter: taking care of your mental health.

“I felt like I was floating for three months last year and not in a nice way,” Grande said of the idea behind the song (per Genius).

Grande’s concert in Manchester, England, was attacked by a suicide bomber in 2017. The attack resulted in 22 deaths, many of which were young children. Though Grande raised £18 million for the affected families, she continually talked about how the event stuck with her in unchangeable ways.

The attack was just one of many hardships Grande had to endure around the time of the album. She was carrying around a heavy amount of criticism for her whirlwind romance with comedian Pete Davidson and was reckoning with the passing of her longtime boyfriend Mac Miller (though they were split up at the time) from a drug overdose.

Though the song can be seen as a pep-talk from Grande to herself following all of these events, the singer intended it to be a catch-all for anyone who listens.

“It’s just about being there for each other and helping each other through scary times and anxiety,” She said in 2018. “There’s just some dark shit out there, man. We just have to be there for each other as much as we can. You just never fucking know.”

She continued, “[‘get well soon’ is about] personal demons and anxiety and more intimate tragedies as well – mental health is so important. People don’t pay enough mind to [mental health] because we have things to do. We have schedules; we have jobs; we have kids and places to be, pressure to fit in, Instagram stories, whatever fucking facade trying to keep up. People don’t pay attention to what’s happening inside.”

Given the song’s universal message, “get well soon” has become a fan favorite since its release. Few songs in Grande’s discography hit you quite as hard.

Well here’s one thing you can trust
It takes you and me to make us
One of those days you had enough, I’ll be there
If it ain’t one thing, it’s another
When you need someone to pull you out the bubble
I’ll be right there just to hug you, I’ll be there

Sweetener

Elsewhere on Sweetener are songs about Grande falling in love with Davidson, cosmic connections, female empowerment, depression, and breakups. This Grande LP is a blockbuster album if there ever was one.

The album earned Grande a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album, marking the singer’s first-ever win at the coveted awards. On top of being recognized by her peers, Sweetener was well-loved on the fan spectrum as well.

The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 200 charts and became her fastest-selling album to date. The world had its eyes firmly planted on Grande at this time, so the success of the record isn’t all that surprising in hindsight.

Sweetener is also notable for Grande’s ability to infuse trap elements into her pure pop sound. Across the record, she makes use of rap-esque beats – courtesy of Williams. The end result was Grande’s most complex and rich album to date.

(Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

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