Grammys 2020: Ariana Grande Seemingly Shades ‘SNL’ Star Pete Davidson With Performance

During the Grammys on Sunday night, Ariana Grande performed a medley of songs from her album thank u, next, and some fans think she may have shaded her ex Pete Davidson in the process. Grande’s performance ended with her sitting on a bed and taking off an engagement ring, putting it back into its box and giving a slight shake of her head. The ring removal came at the end of “thank u, next,” which references Davidson along with several of Grande’s other exes.

Since Davidson is the only person the singer has been engaged to, some fans naturally assumed that the move was meant as a dig at the Saturday Night Live star.

“Ariana putting the ring back in the box…… that’s on pete davidson,” one person tweeted. “Ariana low key throwing shade at her failed engagement to Pete,” wrote another.

“ARIANA TOOK OFF HER RING FROM PETE GO QUEEN IM SO PROUD OF HER,” one fan exclaimed.

Grande and Davidson began dating in May 2018 and got engaged in June, ultimately breaking up in October of that year. Both parties have since spoken out about their relationship, which Grande called “frivolous and fun” during a 2019 interview with Vogue.

“My friends were like, ‘Come! We’re gonna have a fun summer,’” she said of her move to New York City, which she made after her breakup with the late rapper Mac Miller. “And then I met Pete, and it was an amazing distraction. It was frivolous and fun and insane and highly unrealistic, and I loved him, and I didn’t know him. I’m like an infant when it comes to real life and this old soul, been-around-the-block-a-million-times artist. I still don’t trust myself with the life stuff.”

Grande put her feelings about her split with Davidson and her grief over Miller’s death into her album thank u, next, which gave her the most success her incredibly successful career has yet seen.

“If I’m completely honest, I don’t remember those months of my life because I was (a) so drunk and (b) so sad,” she said. “I don’t really remember how it started or how it finished, or how all of a sudden there were 10 songs on the board. I think that this is the first album and also the first year of my life where I’m realizing that I can no longer put off spending time with myself, just as me. I’ve been boo’d up my entire adult life. I’ve always had someone to say goodnight to. So thank u, next was this moment of self-realization. It was this scary moment of ‘Wow, you have to face all this stuff now. No more distractions. You have to heal all this s—.’”

Photo Credit: Getty / John Shearer