After some unfortunate timing with the Twitter timeline in the recent past, the Weeknd is absolutely spittin' now: the artist born Abel Tesfaye has sent out a dispatch into the world about collaborator and runner of pop Ariana Grande's under-discussed music production skills.
Yesterday, Tesfaye chimed in with a tweet from producer Kenny Beats about the need to discuss and credit women as producers, wherein Beats mentioned Grande, Rosalía, King Princess and Doja Cat as among the many women we think of primarily as performing artists who also have some serious prowess behind the boards, writing: "I've seen Ariana work in real time. That woman is a BEAST on Pro Tools."
Yesterday, Tesfaye chimed in with a tweet from producer Kenny Beats about the need to discuss and credit women as producers, wherein Beats mentioned Grande, Rosalía, King Princess and Doja Cat as among the many women we think of primarily as performing artists who also have some serious prowess behind the boards, writing: "I've seen Ariana work in real time. That woman is a BEAST on Pro Tools."
The two artists have had a long history of working together, dating all the way back to the Weeknd's appearance on Grande's 2014 sophomore release My Everything. More recently, she was featured on a remix of "Save Your Tears" from After Hours.
In the original tweet, Beats had noted Grande being "insane" at comping vocals, building intricate layers of harmonies — some even amounting to 100 stacked tracks. The massive, multi-faceted range of her artistic vision is second only to that of her foremost Instagram cover artist, Diane Keaton.
(Thank U) Next, check out a prime example of Grande's vocal arranging skills for yourself in some studio footage of her working on "positions" — the title track of her most recent 2020 LP — below.
Last year, Exclaim! spoke with Canadian producers Elisa Pangsaeng and Louise Burns about how women are transforming a field once dominated by men. Homegrown talent the Weeknd was also included among the 30 artists that defined our first 30 years.
