The Weeknd and Ariana Grande are back again with their fourth collaboration, teaming up to release a remix of The Weeknd’s 2016 “Starboy” track “Die For You” on Feb. 24. Even though the song was released nearly seven years ago, its popularity has yet to die down, and the remix’s new, swooping verse from Grande ensures that it won’t any time soon.
The long-time collaborators and old friends have previously worked together to produce “Love Me Harder” for Grande’s “My Everything” album in 2014, “Off the Table” for Grande’s “Positions” album in 2020 and a remix for The Weeknd’s song “Save Your Tears” for his “After Hours” in 2020. The pair performed “Love Me Harder” together on Saturday Night Live in 2014, “Save Your Tears (Remix)” at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards, and “Off the Table” for Grande’s Vevo Live Performance on YouTube in 2021.
Due to the sudden resurgence of “Die For You” on TikTok, the closing track of The Weeknd’s Grammy-winning third studio album “Starboy” gained new attraction and success. Whether it be through thirst traps or mouthwatering video edits of celebrities, the song has been dominating everyone’s TikTok feeds. Its success saw it re-entering the Billboard Hot 100 by earning a new No. 6 peak earlier this year. By February, it had topped Billboard’s Radio Songs Chart.
This release came as a surprise, especially for Arianators — Grande fans — who were deprived of music from the pop princess for nearly a year and had resorted to enlisting the help of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate Grande’s voice to sing other pop songs. Although Grande is currently taking a hiatus from her music career to focus on her acting role as Glinda in the upcoming “Wicked” musical, she posted an Instagram video of her layering her vocals in Pro Tools to tease her new part on the song, hinting at a possible collaboration between the two before the remix was confirmed and released. She captioned the clip, “Wrote and recorded a verse for my friend after a 14 hour day on set. This certain exception had to be made.” The next day, on Feb. 22, both artists officially announced their remix to the public.
The song opens with the same slow, consistent drum accompanied by a heavy and syncopated bass synth that is intense yet intimate. The Weeknd chimes in with his silky vocals that blend with the song’s seductive undertones. The sensual lyrics — “I’m findin’ ways to articulate the feelin’ I’m goin’ through / I just can’t say I don’t love you” and “You hate that you want me, hate it when you cry” — perfectly portray a dysfunctional romantic relationship between two lovers who obsess over each other, yet cannot find a way to make it work. Their love is bound to fail.
As the track evolves, the synth becomes more layered and gains momentum with faster drum beats in the song’s euphoric pre-chorus. The Weeknd then launches listeners into the song’s rapturous chorus with a loud clash, where he meets with Grande’s subtle background harmonization, angelic high notes and fluttery riffs that screams: she’s back.
Kicking off the second verse, Grande puts her own spin on the song by mirroring The Weeknd’s original lyrics, as if she’s responding back to him — a common motif they employ in their collaborations, like “Love me Harder” and “Save Your Tears (Remix).” While he sings, “I’m findin’ ways to manipulate the feelin’ you’re goin’ through / But baby girl, I’m not blamin’ you,” she croons, “I’m findin’ ways to stay concentrated on what I gotta do / But, baby boy, it’s so hard ‘round you / And yes, I’m blamin’ you.”
From here, she sings the passionate lyrics, “And you know I can’t fake it, now or never / And you insinuatin’ that you think we might be better,” demonstrating her newly improved enunciation by pronouncing every syllable perfectly. This new technique poses a stark contrast to her previous singing style that’s saturated with vocal improvisations and wordless vocables, which are sometimes endowed with her rare yet golden, low-range vocal notes.
Arianators have since dubbed this new Ariana Grande “Enunciana” and “Galinda Grande,” believing her vocal rehearsals for portraying Glinda in “Wicked” to be the main culprit for concealing her usual vocals and occasional “yuhs” that always made an appearance in her songs.
To end the verse, she graces the song with her divine, trilling high notes that layer one on top of the other in “Better me and you / Yeah, I know you do” — more than enough to open the gates of heaven.
She continues to sing the second pre-chorus while putting her celestial vocals on full display, before seamlessly reuniting with The Weeknd to belt alongside him, proving that their synergy is immaculate and gratifying.
Grande, however, disappears after the second chorus and leaves The Weeknd to finish off the rest of the song, as if symbolizing the tortured lovers’ final separation as she finally leaves him on his own. To fans’ disappointment, Grande is also noticeably absent during the bridge’s iconic high note that is meant to catapult listeners back into the chorus one last time to end the song powerfully.
Nonetheless, the remix still proved to be a massive success by surpassing 30 million streams on Spotify, becoming Grande’s fastest remix song to reach this mark. Days after the release of the remix, The Weeknd became the first artist to surpass 100 million listeners on Spotify. If anything, “Die For You (Remix)” goes on to show that duets between The Weeknd and Ariana Grande never fail to impress, even if she has more of a supporting role in this remix. His agile, flexible falsetto and her sultry, whistle tones successfully — and will hopefully continue to — join forces to bless our ears and remind us of the true powerhouses they have always been.
Annabella Johan is an Arts & Entertainment Editor for the 2022-23 school year. She can be reached at ajohan@uci.edu.