Connecting Imogen Heap’s Influence To Ariana Grande’s ‘Eternal Sunshine’
Throughout her seventh studio album, Ariana Grande salutes her idol from the alternative pop scene by utilizing similar production, lyrical, and vocal techniques– as she (and others) have done in previous music efforts from the past.
BY DA’SHAN “NIGHTSHAWN101” SMITH
MARCH 25, 2024
hen speaking to Zach Sang for Amazon Music during a track by track breakdown of her seventh studio album, Eternal Sunshine, Ariana Grande spoke on her greatest music influences. Prior to introducing “Supernatural” and “True Story,”
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she said: “My idol is Mariah and Imogen Heap and I feel like I sit somewhere in between the two of them.” She notes how she learned from the “production side” of Heap, and how “both [ladies] in a blender had always been [her] goal.” She continued: “I loved watching Imogen. When I was a little girl, I fell in love with her. I wanted to have all of the technology she used on stage, and I wanted to wrap leaves in my hair and have a looping machine and a Tenori-on and all these weird things. I wanted to produce and loop and write, so I just studied and learned.”
In 2013, Ariana Grande uploaded a cover of Imogen Heap’s “Just For Now’ on her Youtube page. Sitting on a bed, holding a microphone, with a Boss RC 300 looper on her crossed lap, a 19 year old Grande accesses her falsetto vocal to recreate the whimsical song from Heap’s 2005 opus, ‘Speak For Yourself.’ The video now has 2.6 million views.
A week after that video was uploaded, the season finale of ‘Victorious,’ a Nickelodeon kids’ sitcom where she supported the dynamic high schooler, Cat Valentine, aired. Just a few months later, Grande’s reprised role would be a lead in the spin-off, ‘Sam & Cat.’ In the midst of that summer, her debut album Yours Truly hit the shelves of record stores, streaming sites, and the iTunes website. That album primarily occupied the lane of Mariah Carey-centric pop&B, but the influence of Imogen Heap could be traced throughout other sectors of the mainstream music market.
2013 was not the only time that Ariana Grande covered “Just For Now.” In fact, it may be safe to say that is her favorite song from the alternative trailblazer (aside from one other…). In recent years, her loyal fanbase, the Arianators, unearthed another cover that she did in 2007 at the age of 13. Prior to starring in the 2008 Broadway musical, ‘13,’ Ariana Grande is in her bedroom with a looper, microphone, and a keyboard. This version is less R&B than the YouTube famous one– and a bit more mall rock and power punk. It incorporates her style of spunky ad-libs (a defiant “ah ah”), but also implements handclapping. It’s clear to see that through the years between the covers that Grande honed in on the light feathery aspects of her vocals.
“Just For Now” has a lighthearted, synthy and dreamy style of production– as Imogen Heap relives a holiday dinner with a toxic family that leads to the cooking of the meal starting a fire. It’s an imaginative world filled with humorous lines, but also mirrors the reality of every Thanksgiving on social media where people around the world share disaster tales caused by the archetypal family members they’ve reconnected with. Ariana Grande was not the only artist to have an affinity for “Just For Now.” As SoundCloud was starting to rise in popularity with the underground rap scene, artists such as Clams Casino, Lil B, and A$AP Rocky had sampled the song in various ways.
For his 2009 mixtape, 6 Kiss, Lil B samples the beginning lyrics and instrumental on the opening track, “B.O.R. (Birth of Rap).” Produced by Michael Thomas Volpe, aka Clams Casino, the sample is reversed and repeated, “B.O.R.” finds Lil B rapping about how he became the King of Rap by studying Lil Wayne on BET, Soulja Boy’s ascent into wealth, and listening to Gucci Mane. Towards the end of the mixtape, he slows down the sample in a chopped-n-screwed fashion on the sinister “I’m The Devil” – a foundational song for the subgenre of cloud rap.
Clams Casino
However, the most important sample of SoundCloud history is “I’m God,” which was also produced by Clams Casino. This version is filled with more bass and a standard hip hop thump. Soulja Boy who had been a major fan of Lil B decided to use that instrumental on his 2010 song, “2 Milli.” After a decade of trying to get the sample cleared, once Clams Casino realized its cult following, he finally released the original track on streaming services with Imogen Heap as an credited artist in 2020.
A$AP Rocky’s love for Imogen Heap did not go unnoticed. His 2011 debut mix-tape, LIVE.LOVE.A$AP, sampled “Just For Now” in “Bass” thanks to Clams Casino. And when Kelly Clarkson decided to cover the song for her 2013 Christmas album, Wrapped In Red, Rocky’s debut album, LONG.LIVE.A$AP borrowed the beginning “ooo” ad-libs and bee-boop instrumental of Heap’s “Headlock” on “Angels.” The late Mac Miller sampled “2-1” on 2012’s “Angels (When She Shuts Her Eyes),” which also had Clams Casino production.
While all those aforementioned moments had their place in the deep workings of the internet, Imogen Heap’s mainstream star didn’t really rise until the debut of Jason DeRulo. He did not use the sample of “Just For Now,” but rather the hollowness of “Hide and Seek” on “Whatcha Say” in 2009. Prior to that moment, “Hide and Seek,” a folksy, acapella song that uses a vocoder, appeared on the season two finale of the FOX melodrama, ‘The O.C.’ A lead character shoots another and the song starts to play. Eventually ‘Saturday Night Live’ would parody the moment.
The producers of DeRulo’s song, J.R. Rotem and Fuego, interpolated Heap’s “mmm whatcha say” chorus on a reimagined apology song about cheating on a girlfriend. Balancing pop and R&B with the emerging wave of 2010’s dance pop, “Whatcha Say” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a subsequent global smash.
orn on December 9, 1977 in Rumford, Essex, England, Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap always had a connection to music. As a young child, she was classically trained on the piano, cello, and clarinet.
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This led to her attending the coveted BRIT School of performing arts – where the likes of Amy Winehouse, Adele, and Jessie J also graduated. After signing to the alternative label, Almo Sounds, Heap released her debut studio album, I Megaphone in 1998.
I Megaphone incorporates less of the electronica and trip hop sound that most people recognize Imogen Heap for today. In a time where Lilith Fair had been popular, I Megaphone sounded like the British answer of Fiona Apple merging with Liz Phair. It’s brash with the aggressive nature of pop punk and grunge– with subtle hints of Madonna’s Ray of Light . “Angry Angel” plays as a child of Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” adding to its identity of standardized mall rock of the late ‘90s.
While I Megaphone has developed more of a cult following for the listeners who understand the world of powerful rock women, it was far from a commercial success. Eventually, she would continue to work with one of the album’s producers, Guy Sigsworth. As he took care of the production, Heap added on to that element while providing solo vocals. The pair had first met in 1996, and by 2002 they were releasing their only studio album to date, Details , as the duo, Frou Frou.
Details really plays in the genre of trip hop, bringing about an atmospheric world that chronicles the intricate, well… details of love. This project is where Imogen Heap’s angelic vocals really start to shine, as she does a breathy “lung of love, leaves me breathless” on songs such as the Bollywood-akin “Flicks.” “Hear Me Out” imitated the British soft rock sound that dominated early 2000s radio, while the opening track “Let Go” would be featured in the Grammy Award winning soundtrack of Zach Braff’s 2004 romcom, ‘The Garden State.’ The album garnered more of a cult following for Heap, while being a moderate success in the UK. Prior to disbanding, Frou Frou’s cover of “Holding Out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler appeared on the 2004 soundtrack of ‘Shrek 2.’
In 2005, Imogen Heap took the Gwen Stefani approach of going solo from her rock-centric band. On her second studio album, Speak For Yourself , “Have You Got It In You?” seemed to question her ambition, and ability to do music on her own. Speak For Yourself had best defined the sound of Imogen Heap– fully emerging itself in outlandish electronica where she could fully play with her vocals and production. Conceptually, the LP plays as the tale of an argument gone wrong between an on and off again couple– with the final track, “The Moment I Said It” finalizing in her partner getting hurt in a car crash.
Driven by storytelling on songs such as “Just For Now” and “Hide and Seek,” Speak For Yourself genuinely separated Imogen Heap from the new British invasion while also making her an alternative music hero. The album reached No. 145 on the Billboard 200, and by the end of 2007 it placed at No. 2 on the year-end Top Dance/Electronica Albums chart. At the 2007 Grammys, she was nominated for Best New Artist and for Best Song Written for Visual Media (for a ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ track. Heap appeared on the red carpet with grass in her Mohican hairstyle, holding an umbrella she found at Coachella, and a toy frog she named “Gary.” For American audiences who may have heard murmurs about Imogen Heap, or listened to her album but couldn’t put a face to the artist– that Grammys moment was the formal visual introduction.
Just as Jason DeRulo’s “Whatcha Say” started climbing up the Billboard Hot 100 and impacting radio stations in summer 2009, Imogen Heap released her third studio album, Ellipse . The LP had a more adult contemporary feel and softened up her sound a bit more– as if it were a portal from the ‘Narnia’ world that scored her a Grammy nomination. The album’s only single, “First Train Home,” stayed in rotation on Vh1 morning music video broadcasts and Music Choice. It picked up from the theme of “Goodnight and Go” from Speak For Yourself – the song that mentioned “one of these days, you’ll miss your train, and come stay with me.” Ironically, the songwriting inspiration had come from the fact that she missed her train in real life, and was stuck in a “Just For Now” type of anger. In 2010, the album won the Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical– making her the first female artist to do so.
n October 2014, Imogen Heap posted on her website’s blog:
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“Last Saturday, [her boyfriend] Mike [Lebor] and I had the pleasure of meeting the delightful gang that is Ariana Grande, her mum Joan, documentary filmmaker Jones Crow and their pal Christie over for a spot of dunner.”
Ariana Grande had previously shared a picture on her Instagram– to which Imogen Heap responded on Twitter, her “feed's gone mental.”
The pair ate a vegan dinner that Heap had cooked, and played around with the artist’s signature Mi.Mu gloves. The technological instrument was introduced by Heap at a TedGlobal conference in Scotland in 2011. The abbreviation of the name Mi.Mu meant “me” and “music” – with the gloves having the ability to access recording software such as ProTools. In 2012, Heap used an early model of the gloves to record “Me the Machine.” Grande became one of the first high profile investors of Mi.Mu– performing with them for “Why Try” during her 2015 Honeymoon Tour.
By that point in time, Imogen Heap and Ariana Grande were both entering different parts of womanhood. Heap released her fourth studio album, Sparks, and gave birth to her daughter, Florence, in 2014. She appeared on Taylor Swift’s mega-selling album, 1989, offering her vocals and production on “Clean” (which she’d do once again on the 2022 Taylor’s Version re-recording). Ariana Grande’s star was on the rise thanks to her sophomore album, My Everything , as she notched pop hits “Problem,” “Bang Bang,” and “Break Free.”
Then tragedy struck Ariana Grande during her tour run for 2016’s follow up Dangerous Woman . During her Manchester concert on March 22, 2017, a terrorist bombing took place killing 23 and injuring 1017. As a result, the singer developed PTSD and her anxiety increased. On June 4, she hosted the One Love Manchester benefit concert for the victims of the attack, where Heap performed “Hide and Seek.”
A year after the fact, Grande continued her pop dominance with the release of her fourth studio album, sweetener . This is the album where listeners really get to experience her influences from Imogen Heap. Heap found out that a cover of “Goodnight and Go” existed on the album due to a melody snippet being shared on Twitter, followed by Grande’s brother, Frankie, sending a text message. “It feels like a gift: when somebody that famous picks up on a song that has had its day and gives it a second life, it’s a real gift,” she told ‘Billboard.’
Grande’s version, “goodnight n go” keeps the dream pop melodies of the instrumental but enhances it with the elements of trap-pop. She switches around a few lyrics where she’s rap-singing in a “saucy” way as Imogen Heap describes it. The chorus is kept, taking on the soprano operatic tone of the original tune. The song fits perfectly for the concept of sweetener, which focuses on discovering new love (with her soon-to-be ex fiancé, Pete Davidson) after experiencing trauma and heartbreak.
Around the time of “goodnight n go” becoming a fan favorite, the sounds of trap&B and trap-pop had redefined R&B’s place in the commercial hemisphere. Alternative sounding R&B had also influenced pop music– with the stars of the scene being vocal about how Imogen Heap had influenced them. During her mixtape era, Tinashe linked up with Ryan Hemsworth— where the producer sampled Frou Frou’s “Let Go” for the singer’s “1 For Me” in 2013. Since, Tinashe’s discography continues to experiment with the synthy dream pop sonics present in Heap’s foundational sound. When she was being compared to Brandy, Dawn Richard of Danity Kane fame made a point to say that her solo music had been inspired by Imogen Heap. While rolling out her 2023 solo debut, In Pieces , Chlöe Bailey answered a fan on Twitter that Heap served as one of her many influences. While giving her playlist to ‘Variety,’ SZA listed the British star as one on her rotation.
In 2024, Victoria Monét became only the third woman, and first Black woman to win Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for her album, Jaguar II, at the Grammys. As a full circle moment to Imogen Heap’s influence, she is a songwriter on Grande’s “goodnight n go.” While speaking to ‘The Hollywood Reporter’ about the win, she credits Heap with opening doors for that win: “[She] is kind of self-contained and she’ll go in and record herself, and from start to finish has that ability.”
Yes, And? (2024)
Ariana Grande
ternal Sunshine’ runs at a time of 35 minutes and 26 seconds. It gets its concept from the 2004 romcom, ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.’ Throughout the project, Ariana Grande reimagines herself as the Kate Winslet-character, Clementine—
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who herself is eccentric and unpredictable like Imogen Heap. One moment Clementine can be aggressive and full of free range (as exhibited by Heap on 2005’s “Loose Ends”) and at other times, she can be more reserved and sophisticated (“Hide and Seek”).
With all of the tracks being written by Grande (five of them completely solo), aspects of Heap’s sound appear. On the drum and bass meets trip hop track, “don’t wanna break up again,” there is a moment where she elongates the vowels of the word “refuse” similar to the yodel-like approach Heap uses. When she sings the chorus and harmonizes with herself, there is a light feathery, whimsical nature. Just as her idol punctuates her “ooo’s” so does the pupil– as a sparkle like bell rings in the production.
“Saturn Returns Interlude” plays on the electronic, cloudy themes present throughout Heap’s discography– smoothly transitioning into the lunar title track. Once again the “ooo’s” appear on “eternal sunshine,” and there is even a lyrical mention of “get me out of this loop.” One has to wonder if that’s an Easter egg not only tying into the plot of the movie, but also how Ariana’s musical start involved a loop synthesizer– and furthermore if “get me out” plays on the lyrics of “Just For Now.” Imogen Heap also has this signature ad-lib where she goes “Dum, di-di-di-da-da-da-dum” on “Loose Ends.” Grande mirrors that during the bridge and outro about “deep breath[s],” with backing production that resembles trap and Soundcloud rap from the early 2010’s.
“Supernatural” plays as a combination of albums sweetener and thank u, next, as the production contains the airiness of Imogen Heap. Towards the end, there are background vocals done by men who are using a vocoder– a popular instrument within Heap’s work. “Ordinary Things” oddly feels as though the dreamy hook is being delivered in a glitchy, British dialect.
However the highlight of the album, “I wish i hated you,” would deserve a cover from the alternative pop legend, as it sounds like the most direct imitation of the sound. There is a stunted calmness that echoes throughout the vocal delivery and production. The ringing of the instrumental continues to loop and orbit around a circle– as if the Mi.Mu gloves were used during the recording process. The “mmm” adlibs recall how Heap takes her time with the intimate details of music– as a means to enhance the song so it operates in its own world. If “Imogen Heap” were a genre, “i wish i hated you” would belong on its encyclopedia page– with the article penned by her top pupil of pop music: Ariana Grande.
