Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Billboard
Ariana Grande’s thank u, next is incredibly light on features, but it does include a vocal contribution from drag performer Shangela Laquifa on the third track “NASA.”
Shangela told Billboard that she wound up at the studio with Grande and her brother, Frankie Grande, and that the singer previewed some new music she was working on, including a version of “NASA” with an incomplete intro. Shangela, a self-professed Grande “stan,” said she loved the track and instantly began thinking of how to build a drag routine around it. She recalled:
After it was over she was like, “How do you like it?” I was like, “Oh, girl, I love it, and I’m already thinking of what I’m gonna do for my version.” She looked at me like, “Your version?” I was like, “Oh, I mean a version when I perform in drag. I wanna come out with a moonsuit with some space titties. I wanna come out like I’m walking on the moon. I’m gonna lift up that fake moon mask, and I’m gonna say: ‘This is one small step for woman, one giant leap for womankind.’” She said, “Oh my God,” in her classic, beautiful Ariana Grande voice. She’s so soft and lovely. She’s like, “I love it so much,” and she whips out her cell phone. So I put it on her voicemail, just playing around, being very Shangela Laquifa.
That voicemail became the song’s spoken word introduction, where Shangela says:
This is one small step for woman
One giant leap for woman-kind
Initially, Shangela had no idea that she was going to end up on the song until she got a call out of the blue from Grande.
“A couple months later, she’s on her way to Ellen, and she calls on FaceTime with Frankie. ‘How do you want to be credited on the album?’ I’m like, “Credited on the album?” Shangela said. "So she told me that they used it and I was like, ‘You gotta be kidding.'”
Shangela has performed Grande songs in the past, including a remix of “Focus” from Dangerous Woman.
On the song, Grande asks for distance from her partner, saying that time apart will make the relationship stronger. She says:
Think I’m better off here all alone tonight
Ain’t no checkin' on when I get home tonight
Just makin' sure I’m good on my own tonight
Even though there isn’t nothin' wrong tonight
On the pre-hook for “NASA,” she uses a double meaning of the word “space,” invoking NASA when she sings:
can’t really miss you if I’m with you
And when I miss you, it’ll change the way I kiss you
Baby, you know time apart is beneficial
It’s like I’m the universe and you’ll be N-A-S-A
Grande said on Twitter that “NASA” and “7 rings” were the two songs she had the most fun making.
Genius unpacked Grande’s single “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored” in the episode of Song Stories below.
Read the full lyrics to “NASA” and the rest of Ariana Grande’s discography on Genius now.
