Artist research

Ariana Grande – Butera is

professionally known as Ariana Grande, and

was born June 26th 1993. She is an

American actress and signer, who began her career in a Broadway

musical.

She then moved onto appearing on the

Nickelodeon series Victorious as Cat

Valentine. Her music career began with the

soundtrack for Victorious, and went

onto signing a contract with

Republic records.

She has released two albums: Yours truly

featuring ‘The way’ and My everything,

featuring big singles such as ‘Problem’ ‘Break

free’ and ‘Bang bang’. Some of her awards

include ‘best pop video’ and ‘best pop vocal

album’

Ariana’s style is mostly pop and R&B. She has said that she grew up listening to urban pop and 90’s music which has had a great

influence on her music. She originally created ‘bubble-gum pop’ single for the younger audience, however yours truly is slightly

different. Ariana has described this album as half throwback to the 90’s with a familiar sound, and half her originality and something a

little bit different. Her new album however, adds electro pop genres and is an evolution of Yours Truly. Ariana has cited that artists such

as Whitney Houghton, Mariah Carey and Alicia Keys were inspiration for her debut album. She has also been dubbed a ‘mini

Mariah Carey’ because of her wide vocal range.

At the beginning of her career, Ariana was

applauded on the fact that she didn’t wear

revealing clothing like many artists her age, and

was seen as age appropriate. She did however opt to wear

short skirts and crop tops in her later music videos.

Although featuring collaborations with

well know rappers such as Big Sean and Mac

Miller, her albums keep an appropriate tone, in relation to the image

Ariana presents of herself.

When branded a ‘diva’ by the press, Ariana’s older

brother : Frankie Grande, said that she was one of

the most hardworking stars he had ever met, and she is not spoilt or precious at all.

Her innocence may be a reason why she is so

successful in the pop genre.

Nicki Minaj’s real name is Onika Tanya Maraj. She was

born December 8th 1982. She is a Trinidadian born

singer, rapper and songwriter who earned

attention by releasing 3 mix tapes between 2007 and

2009.

She then signed a contract with Young money

entertainment in 2009. Her debut album Pink Friday

was number one on the US billboard 200. She then became the first female artist to have 7 singles

simultaneously charting in the US.

Her next album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded included the

single ‘Star ships’, and The album in 2014, Pinkprint, saw the single ‘Anaconda’ hit the charts. She has also featured on films such as Ice Age and The other Woman, as well as

judging American Idol in 2013.

Nicki has been considered as the most influential female

rapper of all time. Her rapping is very distinctive

because of the fast flow, use of alter egos, and accents,

mostly being British Cockney. She also well known for

wearing extravagant wigs and clothing in her early stages of

her career.

Nicki Minaj can also be recognised in Mac

cosmetics, Pepsi and Adidas advertisements. Some of

her awards include 4 American music awards,

and 5 billboard music awards. She also owns a

billboard rising female artist award.

Nicki is known to have said that she originally felt obliged to follow the sexual appeal most female rappers of her age have,

but she pushed this representation to the side in order to ensure that people, especially the younger audience,

understood that nothing in real life would be based on sex appeal. The rapper made autographing breasts part of her

movement to empower women. She is also known to refer to herself as ‘King’ instead of ‘Queen’ in ‘moment for life’ as she

finds herself competing with male and female rappers. She refers to her fans as ‘Barbs’ and ‘ken barbs’, like the brand

‘Barbie’ a typically girly toy.

Nicki includes punch lines, metaphors and word play in

her work, as is frequently compared to her mentor: Lil

Wayne. She has also been described as a ‘walking exaggeration, outsize in sound, personality and look’, and has said her

favourite fashion designers are Alexandra McQueen and

Christian Louboutin.

Jessica Ellen Cornish is also known as Jessie J.

She was born on the 27th March 1988. She is

English born and raised in London, beginning her

career in a west end musical: Whistle down

the wind.

She studied at Brit school, along with artists such as Adele, and then signed with Gut records. She then signed a song

writing deal with Sony/ATV music

publishing where she wrote songs for artists

such as Chris Brown and Miley Cyrus.

Her first single came – Do it like a dude - when she

signed with Universal Republic. Her next single Price Tag hit the charts in 19 different countries and her album ‘Who you are’ charted number 2 in the

UK.

Her first album included songs such as: Nobody's perfect,

who you are, domino and laser light. These all charted in the

top 10 UK singles chart, making her the first British female artists to have 6 top

ten singles from a studio album.

In 2012, Jessie J performed and the Queens Diamond

Jubilee concert outside Buckingham palace. As well

as this, she performed at the closing ceremony of the

2012 Olympic games in London.

Her second album was released in 2013 – Alive –

including ‘Wild’ and ‘its my party’. Her third album was released in 2014 – Sweet

talker – which was preceded my the single ‘Bang Bang’

which featured Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj.

Jessie was first identified as a soul singer but primarily records songs of a R&B and Pop nature. Jessie’s songs and styles have been compared to

many artists such as Adele, Rihanna, Pixie Lott and Amy Winehouse. She has also been described as

having ‘confidence you cannot buy’ because of her evident attitude in her music. Jessie calls her fans Heartbeats after her Heartbeat tour, and because

without them she wouldn’t be here (like a heartbeat).