Ariana Grande Spills What No One Knew About Early Troye Sivan Collabs

Ariana Grande rarely minces words about her creative process. She’s been on top of the world long enough to know exactly which parts of the story to share and which to keep close. But in a recent throwback conversation, she cracked open a vault of memories from 7 or 8 years ago, reflecting on a time when the studio wasn’t a polished hit-factory but a chaotic laboratory.

At the center of that throwback? Troye Sivan.

Long before algorithms picked apart their every lyric or critics dissected their brands, these two were just kids in a booth, trying to make something that felt real.

But Ariana being Ariana didn’t serve it up as a Hallmark moment. She served it raw.

And her words have reignited a debate about what it really takes to make music in an era when everyone is watching.

Back When It Was Messy

“It wasn’t clean,” Ariana said with a half-smile. “We didn’t really know what we were doing yet. But that was the good part.”

That’s about as honest as it gets in an industry that loves to retell the past as destiny.

They weren’t icons yet. They weren’t fighting for brand deals or top Spotify slots. They were kids with time on the clock and too many ideas.

Early studio sessions weren’t sleek. They were messy. Tracks fell apart halfway through. Hooks got tossed in the trash. Arguments flared, sometimes over a single word.

But Ariana insists that was the whole point.

“We needed to fight with the songs a little,” she admitted. “If it felt too easy, it probably wasn’t the right track.”

Troye the Wildcard

If Ariana was the focused workaholic, Troye Sivan was the wildcard in the room.

She described him as someone who would push the limits of a session just to see what might break.

“He was always like ‘What if we make it worse?’” she laughed. “He didn’t want things that sounded safe. He liked the ugly takes.”

That tension is visible even now if you listen to the work they released. There’s polish, sure, but also a deliberate sense of risk.

Some of the songs from that era sounded like they might collapse if you pulled at a single thread. That’s what made them addictive.

Because pop at its best isn’t supposed to sound polite.

The Clash of Vision

But those sessions weren’t all laughter and warm nostalgia.

Ariana admitted they butted heads.

“We had days we just stared at each other like, ‘Well that’s not happening,’” she said.

That’s the part the press releases never include.

The reality of making music with other artists is that creative collisions are inevitable. Especially when both parties are control freaks about their sound.

“Troye wanted something rawer than I was ready for at the time,” Ariana said. “He wasn’t wrong. But I needed to do it my way too.”

That push-pull was the secret weapon of their collabs—even if it didn’t feel like a weapon at the time.

A Creative Battlefield

It’s easy now to imagine them nodding in perfect agreement, looking back with mature grace.

But that’s revisionist.

At the time, the studio was a battlefield.

They fought over chords. They scrapped entire demos. They rolled eyes when producers tried to referee.

But Ariana insists that tension was necessary.

“That’s where you find the part of the song you actually care about,” she said. “If no one’s fighting for it, you don’t want it enough.”

Manufacturing the Imperfect

One thing Ariana made clear? None of this was “accidentally brilliant.”

They weren’t just goofing off and stumbling into gold.

They were working.

They were willing to make it ugly.

Pop music has a weird obsession with telling the public that hits are effortless. That someone just walked into the booth and magic happened.

Ariana’s version is different.

She calls it “manufacturing the imperfect.”

“You work it until it feels unplanned,” she explained. “That’s the hardest thing to do.”

It’s an admission that would make any marketing exec nervous.

Because it means the audience is being sold something that pretends to be raw.

But Ariana doesn’t apologize for it.

“That’s the job,” she said.

The Missing Tracks

One of the spiciest revelations was that there are unfinished tracks from those sessions—songs they never finished because they were too stubborn to compromise.

“They’re in a hard drive somewhere,” she laughed. “Unlistenable. But I’m glad they exist.”

For a moment you can see the real Ariana Grande. The one who doesn’t mind admitting she failed at something.

It’s a far cry from the pop star image that’s supposed to have no cracks in it.

A Lesson for Modern Pop

If Ariana’s reflections reveal anything, it’s that there’s a big difference between branding and reality.

We see the glossy photoshoots. The coordinated drops. The label-friendly quotes.

But the reality of those early days was just two people willing to sound bad for a while.

That’s the part of the process no one wants to market.

Because audiences want the illusion of perfection.

They want the effortless vibe.

But Ariana’s version is that perfection is just the part you let people see after you’ve fought through a hundred broken versions.

Rewriting the Narrative

It’s easy to see why these stories still matter.

Seven or eight years later, both Ariana Grande and Troye Sivan are household names.

But success has a way of rewriting the past to make it look inevitable.

Ariana’s not having it.

She describes that era as stressful, unpredictable, and sometimes downright awful.

But she also calls it necessary.

“You need those ugly sessions,” she said. “That’s where you stop sounding like everybody else.”

No Fairy Tale

One of the most interesting things about Ariana’s throwback comments is how unglamorous they are.

There’s no fairy tale about two young stars immediately seeing eye-to-eye.

Instead there’s conflict, confusion, and a lot of wasted studio hours.

It’s not the narrative labels want.

But it’s the truth.

And it’s probably the truth behind most “overnight” successes.

Why It Still Matters Now

Seven or eight years is a lifetime in pop.

Trends have come and gone. Algorithms have replaced A&R.

But those old studio sessions explain something important about how these artists evolved.

They didn’t get better because the industry molded them.

They got better because they were willing to be bad.

They were willing to fight for ideas that didn’t work until they found one that did.

It’s not a lesson that’s particularly marketable.

But it’s one that has real staying power.

A Blueprint for Future Collabs

When Ariana Grande talks about those days now, there’s no regret in her voice.

She seems almost proud of how messy it was.

Because in a world where everyone wants the final product to be smooth and shareable, she knows the real value is in the part you don’t see.

“It’s the fights, the failures,” she said. “That’s the good stuff.”

It’s the blueprint for making music that actually matters.

Not just for Ariana and Troye, but for every new artist who thinks they’re supposed to get it right on the first try.

Final Word

If there’s a headline here, it’s not “Ariana Grande Praises Troye Sivan.”

It’s not “Pop’s New Power Duo.”

It’s that even the most polished acts have a messy past they’d be nowhere without.

And Ariana Grande isn’t afraid to admit it.

Because that’s not weakness.

That’s proof of work.