Why this might be Ariana Grande's boldest era yet

The pop star is gloriously unpredictable - and it feels like she wants to play in a historic league with stars like Madonna

- ROB SHEFFIELD

ARIANA GRANDE has built such a mighty pop legacy over the past decade as one of the most consistently kicky hitmakers around - but also as one of the weirdest minds in the game. 'Yes, And?' is her number one comeback, a disco rage-queen anthem that raises expectations for her long-awaited return, Eternal Sunshine. It's a brilliantly nasty manifesto to kick off the new Ariana era. She's just hit her thirties, wrapping up her Saturn return, and she's making music after a four-year layoff. But she's got some nonholistic shit to talk about to anyone gossiping about her between albums. "Don't comment on my body, do not reply," Ari sneers. "Your business is yours and mine is mine/ Why do you care so much whose dick I ride?"

Madonna, one of Grande's idols, is the guiding spirit of 'Yes, And?', which rides a 'Vogue'-style house beat. It's a clever salute to the queen, who invented this power move of reminding people how controversial you are by complaining how controversial you are. But it's also a spiritually perfect shout-out at a pivotal time for Grande. She's 30, around the age when Madonna made her big move into the future with Like a Prayer, the album that catapulted her into one of the most dizzyingly brilliant thirties any pop artist ever had. So for Grande to invoke 'Vogue', right from Madonna's change-of-decade moment, feels like a bold statement about her ambitions she wants to play in that historic league. Thirtysomething Madonna had it both ways: sophisticated mega-pop depth and disco bombast. Why shouldn't Ariana?