Ariana Grande drops sultry new music video for The Boy Is Mine
New York, New York - Ariana Grande's music video for her hit single The Boy Is Mine has dropped to much fanfare!
The Dangerous Woman is back, and this time, she has magic on her side.
Fans got a taste of Grande's new hit, The Boy is Mine, during her appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday night. Now, they're getting the full experience!
The much-hyped video, which is rumored to be about her controversial relationship with Wicked co-star Ethan Slater, begins with a cinematic establishing bit to set the stage for the storyline.
In a dark city, garbage men rant about the new mayor before one falls to the ground at the mercy of some evidently feisty but largely unseen rats.
The screen cuts to Ariana Grande's character wearing the nerdy chic ensemble the Eternal Sunshine singer previously teased on her Instagram.
She looks closely at a glowing pink bottle of love potion, entranced, and corks it tight. In the background, the TV can be heard with a cameo from the sampled song's original artists Brandy and Monica as news co-anchors.
Through them and a short clip from a press conference, we find out that the city's rat infestation has grown so serious that the handsome young mayor announces plans to release copious amounts of cats in the city to deal with the problem.
"Mayor Max Starling" is played by Penn Badgley of You and Gossip Girl fame – an obvious inspiration for the video's overall aesthetic – and, by Ari's obsessive reaction to seeing him on screen, the obvious target of her love potion.
"He's f***ing brilliant... so hot," she muses to herself before a gray cat hops through her kitchen window and inspects her "Max Starling Love Potion." Alas, the cat's snoot knocks the bottle from the counter with a crash, and the song finally begins after four minutes of lead-in.
The Boy Is Mine goes all in on Cat Woman aesthetics
From there the Supernatural artist gets to work on damage control, picking up as much of the concoction as she can with a syringe and into a smaller bottle.
She dances around a shrine for the mayor on her mantle and starts sewing a sexy cat woman costume, which she wears as she bounds over the rooftops of the Gotham-esque city in the rain – whip cracking behind her.
Ariana then breaks into his luxe apartment cat burglar style as ominous horror movie music swells.
When Mayor Max sees her sitting on his bed, he starts to run, but Ariana catches him by the ankle with her whip.
As she slowly reels him in closer to her, he gets a good look at her and appears love-struck already – so much so that, when she tries to give him the love potion, he pushes it away and lifts her mask.
Already spellbound by her, he throws the pink liquid at the wall in a puff of heart-shaped smoke.
A black-and-white credits scene shows the two sitting happily in domestic bliss on the couch together with coffee and oodles of cats.
If this video is indeed an extended metaphor for her supposedly healthy relationship with Ethan Slater, then it makes sense that the major character falls for Ari of his own volition!
The pink Glinda-coded love potion also points to a Wicked connection, but the city location and her costume at the beginning are giving Gossip Girl. Plus, the horror tone and ominous stalking are straight out of Penn's sketchy character from You.
While the Catwoman aesthetic among the city skyline also definitely has notes of Batman – another film series that Jim Carrey starred in, adding to the album-inspiring Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Ariana has a well-known love of cat ear headbands for performances and fun in a possible nod to her Nickelodeon character Cat Valentine.
Cover photo: Collage: Screenshots/YouTube/@Ariana Grande