Ariana Grande is well-known for her collaborations. Her debut album, Yours Truly, featured the big names of the music industry as collaborators, including Mac Miller, Big Sean, Mika, and The Wanted’s Nathan Sykes.

In 2020, ahead of the release of BLACKPINK’s single, Ice Cream, Grande uploaded an Instagram story about the song, Soompi reported. The caption of the story read:

“Proud of the squad, and so proud of this!!! so much love for this team and these ladies!!!”

The 7 Rings singer also tagged Selena Gomez, Tommy Brown, Mr. Franks, Victoria Monet, and the band BLACKPINK in her story. According to the Jakarta Post, Ariana Grande later confirmed that she had helped create the track, despite not being featured in the music video.

Ariana Grande co-wrote Ice Cream alongside other famous singers and rappers

BLACKPINK’s Ice Cream, which premiered on YouTube on August 28, 2020, was released as a single for the band’s debut studio album, The Album. Selena Gomez was the lead collaborator on the track and was also featured in its music video as the vendor and driver of an ice cream truck.

Besides Gomez and Ariana Grande, the other collaborators on the bubblegum pop song include Steven Franks, 24, Teddy, Bekuh Boom, Victoria Monet, and Tommy Brown.

The track hit immediate commercial success, peaking at number 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also became the first-ever single by a female Korean act to enter the chart’s top 20. It was also nominated for Best Collaboration for prestigious awards like People’s Choice and the MTV Video Music Awards.

On the day of its release, in an interview with Jane Lowe, Gomez spoke about her experience working with the South Korean girl band, saying:

“I’m so excited. The girls are so cool, and I love their music. I just think that they know… They have this thing about them… I had such a good time with them over FaceTime.”

In April 2024, BLACKPINK celebrated 900 million views on YouTube. Meanwhile, the group has recorded 577,530,404 streams on Spotify (at the time of writing the article).

Ariana Grande became the highest-paid female musician on the Forbes 2020 list

Besides being the composer behind BLACKPINK’s Ice Cream, 2020 was a remarkable year in Ariana Grande’s career. Grande was included in the Forbes list of the 100 highest-paid celebrities.

The Wicked actress acquired the 17th position on the list, with a reported net worth of $72 million at the time. With that, Grande became the highest-paid female musician on the list, surpassing Taylor Swift, who peaked at the top of the list in 2019 but took the 25th position that year.

Ariana Grande also released Stuck With U with Justin Bieber that year in May, which peaked on the Billboard Hot 100, making it her third chart-topping single. Grande’s collaborative work with Lady Gaga, Rain on Me, was also released that year, which went on to win the singer-songwriter her second Grammy the following year.

In October 2020, Grande released her sixth studio album, Positions, which peaked on the Billboard 200 album chart, marking her fifth album to achieve the title. The namesake track from the album also peaked on the Billboard Hot 100.

The next month, the POV singer made a surprise appearance at the Adult Swim Festival, performing alongside Thundercat on his song Them Changes. Before the year ended, Grande released her first documentary film, titled Excuse Me: I Love You, on Netflix on December 21.

The Paul Dugdale movie was co-produced by Grande and her manager, Scooter Braun, and won a nomination for the Best Music Documentary Award at the MTV Movies & TV Awards in 2021.