Sylvia Le Mat

Staff Writer

@PetitGizmo

She premiered it last Saturday at the Radio Disney awards in front of an enthusiastic crowd and it is now official: Ariana Grande’s new lead single “Problem”  featuring rap-stress Iggy Azalea (available since Monday) topped iTunes Chart and is now #1 in 22 countries. It overtook Pharell’s “Happy” as the top downloaded single and broke the record previously held by Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” by reaching the #1 place in 40 minutes instead of 50.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMTW1LPW0vM

To be honest, I had not been convinced by her first album, “Yours Truly”, which was too bland and syrupy for me. I had the impression to listen to the variations of the same song while listening to the LP. Moreover, the cover of the album where she looked like a 13 year-old posing in pink lingerie on a bed of roses was rather creepy.  I know that the Lolita concept is not new, but I think that her team took the concept much too far this time.

I had no particular expectations for her new single and LP. However, when I listened to her lead single of her sophomore album, I was forced to admit that it was actually pretty good and was a major change from what she has offered before. I’m not going to discuss Ariana’s voice as it obviously is her major asset -even if I found that the “Problem” was sometimes a bit loud-voiced. We all know that the girl has a wonderful voice -still a bit lacking personality in my opinion, but she is young and will definitely make progress on this aspect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8E2G0m6n84

Produced by Zedd (the man behind Lady Gaga’s “G.U.Y”), “Problem” is a saxophone-drenched, catchy and infectious song about a girl who keeps falling in love for a guy who doesn’t deserve it: “Tell me, tell me baby / Why did you leave me? / ‘Cause even though I shouldn’t want it / I gotta have it / I want you.” It sounds like a clever mix of “Talk Dirty” from Jason Derulo (for the saxophone), “One Thing” from Amerie (for the brassy horns) and bits of the Ying Yang Twins “Whisper Song” when the beat drops and that a male voice keeps on repeating “One less problem without ya.” I wasn’t expecting that, and I liked it a lot.

Critics from all over the world praised the song and the surprising but successful featuring with Iggy. TIME called the song “a bouncy, brassy ode to letting go of unworthy exes and instituting a no-scrubs policy in your personal life, and Grande lets her Broadway-honed vocals soar over a beat that would be equally at home in the club,” and Entertainment Weekly declared it was a “dramatic re-invention”.