Almost Is Never Enough

Album: Yours Truly (2013)
Charted: 49 82
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Songfacts®:

  • This love ballad is a duet with The Wanted's Nathan Sykes - both singers are managed by Scooter Braun. Ariana recalled to MTV News: "I didn't know it was going to be a duet and Scooter just said 'Check your email'."

    "And Nathan just sang the hell out of it," she added. "I thought it was Brian McKnight. I'm like 'Who is this?' Honestly I wasn't expecting it. I didn't know he had that in him. I saw him perform live on one of the radio shows that we were at together and I was like, 'Damn he can sing.'"
  • The song also features on The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones soundtrack. Ariana told MTV News: "The version going on the Mortal Instruments soundtrack is a much shorter version. The one that's on my album is very long. But I'm really excited by it."
  • This marked the first time Sykes hit the recording studio after undergoing vocal cord surgery back in April 2013. "I met Ariana at a charity bowling event thing, and she seemed lovely, and we kept in contact, and she's a really talented girl," Sykes recalled to MTV News. "I got the call from Scooter like, 'We want you to try this vocal. It's a really hard vocal, and she doesn't even know it's been turned into a duet.'"

    "This would have been the first time I've recorded since my surgery, so I went in," Nathan added, noting that the team had to evaluate his post-surgery vocal ability. "I was really nervous. I've never been so nervous for a session, and went in and [did] what I like to think is quite possibly the best vocal I've ever recorded. I'm really proud of it."
  • Braun tweeted that the video for the track has hints of Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey's clip for their 1995 hit ballad "One Sweet Day." Sykes told MTV News that "One Sweet Day" is a good comparison: "Yeah, it's kind of that vibe, the sort of sound we really took to on the track, and we're both big fans of both those artists," he said. "The video's a really cool video. It was shot and recorded in the studio. I get to get on the piano at some points. It shows a really fun day recording the track."
  • The pair debuted the song live on August 10, 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia, while Grande was enjoying a brief stint opening for Justin Bieber on his Believe tour.

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