Ariana Grande’s New Music Video Is The Actual Best

Don't get me wrong. I'm a disciple of the Dangerous Woman singer, but I wouldn't necessarily peg her as one of the foremost music video innovators. So thank heavens for Ariana Grande's "Everyday" music video, which proves that her sense of humor is every bit as sharp when on her own territory as it is when she does, say, a hilarious impersonation of Jennifer Lawrence on Saturday Night Live. This is what we've been waiting for. In the past, Grande has been an affiliate of the "wear something cute and shake it" school of music videos. And, hey, female pop stars looking cute and shaking it is no crime. It's a decent aesthetic and it's fun. But just this aesthetic and no other variation on this didn't always strike me as terribly fitting for Grande.

The singer is an outspoken woman with a wicked sense of humor, but somehow we always had to rely on her Twitter feed or interviews to see it, not her music videos. But her collaboration with rapper Future is wonderful because it's so kooky and funny. In short, it shows Grande wandering round a city and stumbling across very normal couples getting passionate in extraordinary circumstances, i.e. an elderly couple making out on a bus and giving in to the joy of a PDA.

It's funny because it embraces a whole different side to sexuality that we don't see so much on the album the single is taken from, Dangerous Woman. In her most recent album, Grande's portrayal of sex is very breathy and passionate and soap opera style. And maybe that's why this video is so funny. We've got that contrast between lyrics like "Anytime, anywhere, baby boy, I can misbehave" and the wonderfully banal make out spots — on top of a photocopier, on the bus.

Maybe that's why Grande chose the theme for this song. It works perfectly, because it really is about the "everyday" — totally ordinary looking people in ordinary everyday settings adding the magic to their make out sessions. They're not steamy because you've got great lighting and a scenic backdrop, but because of the sheer passion of each couple's seven minutes (seven seconds?) in heaven.

It's warm and it's funny and a little bit silly, just like sex itself can be. So three cheers for Grande and her taking a chance this music video round. It's clearly paid off.