Voodoo Love

Album: Not released on an album (2012)

Songfacts®:

  • "Voodoo Love" finds Ariana Grande mixing up a love potion to charm her target guy. The recipe involves a frog and some thyme. She's quite determined to get him under her spell, and warns that if he ever leaves her, she's going to lock him in her trunk.

    Grande was 18 when she recorded the song in 2012 for her debut album, Yours Truly. She previewed it and occasionally performed snippets, but it didn't make the final cut for the album, which emerged in 2013. Grande posted it to her SoundCloud account in August 2016.
  • Grande was still on the Nickelodeon show Victorious when she wrote this song with Pebe Sebert and Allan Peter Grigg. Sebert is Kesha's mom, and also wrote another Yours Truly outtake with Grande, "Pink Champagne."

    In a Songfacts interview with Sebert, she explained why these songs didn't make the cut. "When you're the first co-writes on a record, when the record takes two years, you're probably going to be the first dropped," she said. "Especially when you've got a young girl like Ariana, two years later, 'Pink Champagne' is going to seem a little too bubblegum, which is what ended up happening. That and 'Voodoo Love' were on the record all the way up to the pre-sale, and then they were just trying to get her a little more street cred with some stuff that didn't feel quite as young."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Song Cities

Song CitiesMusic Quiz

Nirvana, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen are among those who wrote songs with cities that show up in this quiz.

Top American Idol Moments: Songs And Scandals

Top American Idol Moments: Songs And ScandalsSong Writing

Surprise exits, a catfight and some very memorable performances make our list of the most memorable Idol moments.

Crystal Waters

Crystal WatersSongwriter Interviews

Waters tells the "Gypsy Woman" story, shares some of her songwriting insights, and explains how Dennis Rodman ended up on one of her songs.

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The Kingdom

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The KingdomSongwriter Interviews

The Bush frontman on where he finds inspiration for lyrics, if his "machine head" is a guitar tuner, and the stories behind songs from the album The Kingdom.

Lip-Synch Rebels

Lip-Synch RebelsSong Writing

What happens when Kurt Cobain, Iron Maiden and Johnny Lydon are told to lip-synch? Some hilarious "performances."

Did They Really Sing In That Movie?

Did They Really Sing In That Movie?Fact or Fiction

Bradley Cooper, Michael J. Fox, Rami Malek, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow and George Clooney: Which actors really sang in their movies?