Ariana Grande's follow up to hit single, "Problem," was welcomed by fans. However, grammar conscious listeners, whether Arianators or otherwise, paid "Break Free" more attention than necessary for its questionable lyrics. Or rather, the "nonsensical" nature of the text that came with the EDM-inspired track.
"Don't blame the songbird for lines such as 'Now that I've become who I really are' and 'I only wanna die alive' - blame über-producer Max Martin, who made her do it," Time noted.
"I fought him on it the whole time," Ari revealed in an interview with the news source. "'I am not going to sing a grammatically incorrect lyric, help me, God!' Max was like, 'It's funny - just do it!' I know it's funny and silly, but grammatically incorrect things make me cringe sometimes."
Before the 21-year-old pop sensation clarified the grammatical snafu, some had suspected that she wasn't exactly the one people should be pointing fingers at, although the words did tumble out of her own mouth.
"We pointed a finger at Swedish songwriter/producer Max Martin, who co-wrote the song, and whose many linguistic travesties are well-documented," Slate observed, recalling other similar gaffes by the in-demand tunesmith. "Some posited that perhaps she was singing a hybrid of 'am' and 'are' in an effort to force a rhyme."
Radio.com also made this observation: "Producer Martin has a sizable track record of strange, nonsensical lyrics and songs in his nonetheless illustrious career. Many of those come from Martin's early bubblegum pop days - remember 'Sadness is beautiful / Loneliness is tragical' from Backstreet Boys' 'Shape of My Heart' or 'Tell me / I'm not in the blue' out of Britney Spears' '(You Drive Me) Crazy'? Then there's Backstreet's entire 'I Want It That Way,' the lyrics of which were chopped and screwed so much as the song was written that the song doesn't really make much sense anymore."
However, the songstress eventually yielded to the veteran musicmaker, admitting that she has learned to love the "lyrical quirks" of the song.
"I was like, whatever, let's do it and have some fun. I need to shake it off and let it go and be a little less rigid and old. I'm like 90. I need to not be that old," Ari said.
When asked what it meant to "die alive," this is what Ariana had to say:
"It means life is so short - there's no reason to not enjoy it and there's no reason you should be anything but yourself. Have fun, be spontaneous and let go. It's O.K. to cut off whatever you feel is holding you back."
Do you agree to her explanation or do you have one of your own?
Judging by Ari's yielding to the grammatical quirks of the songwriter, it appears she does not take it as something that's holding her back from releasing the song and hopefully profit from it.
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