"Ghostin" peaked at number 25 on the US
Billboard Hot 100 and was a top 40 entry in Australia, Canada, Lithuania, Portugal, and Slovakia.
Background and release
"Ghostin" was written by
Ariana Grande,
Victoria Monét,
Tayla Parx,
Savan Kotecha, and producers
Max Martin and
Ilya Salmanzadeh, for Grande's fifth studio album Thank U, Next (2019).[1] Grande's vocals were recorded at
Jungle City Studios in New York City.[2][3] According to Grande, it was the first song written for the album and took the longest to write: "We had to take [little] breaks from 'Ghostin'. That was the first
hook done and then we came back and did the verses like two weeks later... everything else we did in like an hour."[4] She also stated that it was the hardest song to write for the album, particularly the second verse.[5] After completing the song, Grande did not want to release it and begged her manager
Scooter Braun to remove it from the album, but he convinced her to keep it.[5]
"Ghostin" was released with the album on February 8, 2019, by
Republic Records.[6] Not comfortable enough to perform the song, Grande excluded it from the set list of her
Sweetener World Tour.[4]
Composition
Ghostin is an emotional synths and strings
pop[7] and
art pop[8]ballad. When asked what the song is about in January 2019, Grande responded: "Feeling badly for the person you're with [because] you love somebody else. Feeling badly [because] he can tell he can't compare... and how I should be
ghosting him.".[9] The song is thought to be about Grande grieving for her ex-boyfriend
Mac Miller, who died from a
drug overdose in September 2018, while she was with her then-fiancé
Pete Davidson.[10][11] In a February 2019 interview, co-writer
Savan Kotecha said: "The song speaks for itself in terms of what it’s about. We were with her for a week in New York witnessing that, witnessing her feelings on that."[12]
Critical reception
The song received unanimous and universal acclaim, with praise directed towards the emotionally honest songwriting, the production and Grande's vocal performance. Michael Cragg of The Guardian called the song an "emotional centrepiece", "gorgeous" and praised Martin's "production that seems to levitate on a pillow-soft blend of eerie backwards synths and big syrupy strings".[13]Billboard's Andrew Unterberger described the song as "the album's barest, most emotional track [...] one that, appropriately, lingers with you well after it's gone."[11]
In 2021, The Guardian ranked the song number five on their list of the 20 greatest Ariana Grande songs,[14] and in 2022, Rolling Stone ranked the song number three on their list of the 50 greatest Ariana Grande songs.[15]
Commercial performance
The song debuted on the February 23, 2019 issue of the
Billboard Hot 100 at number 25 in the United States, becoming Grande's 22nd top thirty entry and one of her highest-charting non-singles on the chart to date.[16]
^"
ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – SINGLES DIGITAL – TOP 100 and insert 201907 into search. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
^"
ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select SINGLES DIGITAL - TOP 100 and insert 201907 into search. Retrieved February 19, 2019.