7 Rings

Album: Thank U, Next (2018)
Charted: 1 1
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Songfacts®:

  • Ariana Grande tweeted that the song came about after a "pretty rough day" in New York City following her split from Pete Davidson. Six of the singer's friends (including "Thank U, Next" songwriting partners Victoria Monet and Tayla Parx) took her to Tiffany's for some retail therapy. There, fueled by too much champagne, she bought them all matching rings. On the way back a friend suggested she turn her feelings into music and they penned this tune that afternoon.
  • In addition to Victoria Monet and Tayla Parx, the other four people that Grande bought matching rings for were:

    Grande's childhood friend Alexia Luria

    Kim "Kaydence" Krysiuk, who co-wrote the Sweetner track "Better Off."

    Mac Miller songwriting collaborator Njomza Vitia

    Courtney Chipolone, who played Gretchen Weiners in the "Thank U, Next" video.
  • Grande bought 10 rings in total, as her mom, grandma and video director friend Hannah Lux Davis all got one too, but they received theirs after the song was done.
  • In the verses, Grande boosts Julie Andrews' flow from The Sound of Music's "My Favorite Things" as she details some of the things she loves spending money on. Grande isn't interested in bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens - she prefers diamonds and champagne.

    Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, the team that wrote "My Favorite Things," received songwriter credits on "7 Rings."
  • Rapper Princess Nokia took to Twitter to accuse Grande of hijacking some of the lyrics from her 2017 song "Mine" for "7 Rings." It has also been suggested that Grande's friendship anthem sounds similar to Soulja Boy's 2010 hit "Pretty Boy Swag"and 2 Chainz's 2011 track "Spend It." In addition, it was noted that the premise of the song's artwork and music video is similar to that of Chainz's famous pink trap house in Atlanta.
  • "7 Rings" accrued 14,966,544 global plays on Spotify in the 24 hours after being released on January 18, 2018, smashing the single-day record for streams on the platform. The record had previously been held by Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You," which attracted 10,819,009 Spotify streams on December 24, 2018.
  • The song's official remix features an autotuned verse from 2 Chainz. His icy rhymes find him talking about how he's going to spoil his girl. This was the first time Grande and 2 Chainz worked together, signaling there was no bad blood between them concerning the accusations that Grande stole inspiration from the Georgia rapper.
  • This is not the first time that "My Favorite Things" has inspired a pop hit. In 2003 the South London crew Big Brovaz released a track titled "Favourite Things," which was based on the Sound of Music song. It peaked at #2 on the UK singles chart and also reached the top ten in Australia and New Zealand.
  • Grande's avatar performs this in a 2019 commercial for Apple's Memoji.
  • According to a report in the New York Times, Grande's label Republic forged a deal in January 2019 with Imagem/Concord Music, which owns the Rodgers & Hammerstein back catalogue. They reportedly agreed a fee of 90% of the song's royalties in order to grant Grande their license to use the track.
  • "7 Rings" was produced by Social House, a duo comprising Pittsburgh natives Michael "Mikey" Foster and Charles "Scootie" Anderson. The pair also worked on "Thank U, Next."

    Scootie told Radio.com that "7 Rings" was "a really organic process." He explained that the songwriters had just returned from Tiffany's with the rings that Grande had bought them. They said: "'Hey can you guys make something that would sound cool, kinda like Sound Of Music." The production duo looked at each other, gulped, then walked over to the piano. They sat down and as the girls sung the lyrics Mikey and Scootie "literally started pressing keys."

    Those keys are the first notes of the song. "Ari was like, 'yep, that,'" Scottie said.
  • An artist named Josh Stone, who goes by the stage name of Dot, sued Ariana Grande and her co-writers, claiming "7 Rings" is a rip off of his 2017 track called "You Need it I Got It."

    In the lawsuit filed in January 2020, Stone claimed that he'd played his song to frequent Ariana Grande collaborator Tommy Brown and others during a meeting at Universal Music Publishing. According to the suit, "Brown simply took 'I Got It' to Ariana Grande and the other defendants and later repackaged 'I Got It' into '7 Rings.'"

    Stone also notes in the lawsuit just how similar the two songs are, stating: "A lay person listening to the 'hook' and chorus of both songs can hear the strikingly similar and, at times, identical beat, rhythm and lyrics of both songs."

    The New York court where the litigation was filed confirmed in March 2021 that a settlement had been reached.
  • Grande performed this at the Grammy Awards in 2020, opening by singing a bit of "My Favorite Things." She was nominated for five awards but got shut out, although the big winner, Billie Eilish, said Thank U, Next should have won Album of the Year when she accepted the award.

Comments: 1

  • Carter from Youngstown OhAri is the best. 7 rings is the perfect song about getting whatever you want so its great to listen to. By the way she is SO SEXY!
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