"Ghostin" was written by Ariana Grande, Victoria Monét, Tayla Parx, Savan Kotecha, and producers Max Martin and Ilya Salmanzadeh, for Grande's fifth studio album Thank U, Next (2019).[1] Grande's vocals were recorded at Jungle City Studios in New York City.[2][3] According to Grande, it was the first song written for the album and took the longest to write: "We had to take [little] breaks from 'Ghostin'. That was the first hook done and then we came back and did the verses like two weeks later... everything else we did in like an hour."[4] She also stated that it was the hardest song to write for the album, particularly the second verse.[5] After completing the song, Grande did not want to release it and begged her manager Scooter Braun to remove it from the album, but he convinced her to keep it.[5]
"Ghostin" was released with the album on February 8, 2019, by Republic Records.[6] Not comfortable enough to perform the song, Grande excluded it from the set list of her Sweetener World Tour.[4]
Composition
Ghostin is an emotional synths and strings pop[7] and art pop[8]ballad. When asked what the song is about in January 2019, Grande responded: "Feeling badly for the person you're with [because] you love somebody else. Feeling badly [because] he can tell he can't compare... and how I should be ghosting him.".[9] The song is thought to be about Grande grieving for her ex-boyfriend Mac Miller, who died from a drug overdose in September 2018, while she was with her then-fiancé Pete Davidson.[10][11] In a February 2019 interview, co-writer Savan Kotecha said: "The song speaks for itself in terms of what it’s about. We were with her for a week in New York witnessing that, witnessing her feelings on that."[12]
Critical reception
The song received unanimous and universal acclaim, with praise directed towards the emotionally honest songwriting, the production and Grande's vocal performance. Michael Cragg of The Guardian called the song an "emotional centrepiece", "gorgeous" and praised Martin's "production that seems to levitate on a pillow-soft blend of eerie backwards synths and big syrupy strings".[13]Billboard's Andrew Unterberger described the song as "the album's barest, most emotional track [...] one that, appropriately, lingers with you well after it's gone."[11]
In 2021, The Guardian ranked the song number five on their list of the 20 greatest Ariana Grande songs,[14] and in 2022, Rolling Stone ranked the song number three on their list of the 50 greatest Ariana Grande songs.[15]
Commercial performance
The song debuted on the February 23, 2019 issue of the Billboard Hot 100 at number 25 in the United States, becoming Grande's 22nd top thirty entry and one of her highest-charting non-singles on the chart to date.[16]
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 07. týden 2019 in the date selector. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 07. týden 2019 in the date selector. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
