Please pass along a kind “Thank U, Next” to all other music videos, because Miss Ariana Grande has finally arrived.
After toying with us for weeks with star-studded Instagrams, a teaser trailer, behind-the-scenes peeks and more, the singer’s “Thank U, Next” music video is finally here, and it finally made fetch happen.
Inspired by “Mean Girls” and other female-driven films of the early 2000s, Grande is front and center in her video for the pettiest empowerment anthem around.
The video re-creates iconic moments from the films as Grande muses on past relationships, with callbacks to the scene from “Bring It On” that made toothbrushing sexy, the heartbreaking goodbye from “13 Going On 30,” and the bend-and-snap sequence in “Legally Blonde.”
“Mean Girls,” however gets the lion’s share of tributes, with reality-TV star Kris Jenner even appearing as Amy Poehler’s “cool mom” character from the teen comedy.
Before the video premiered, Grande got the blessing of some of the films’ original stars, including Reese Witherspoon and Lindsay Lohan ― though Lohan’s Instagram post was admittedly more lukewarm.
The video arrives weeks after her much-publicized breakup with “Saturday Night Live” star Pete Davidson, who gets a shoutout in the song among a list of Grande’s other exes, including the late Mac Miller and rapper Big Sean.
The 25-year-old Grande performed the single live for the first time on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” earlier this month in an aggressively charming number inspired by the ’90s comedy “The First Wives Club.”
The song, Grande’s first No. 1 single, is the first from the pop star’s forthcoming studio album of the same name. It will be her fifth album and follows “Sweetener,” which she released in August.