Ariana Grande celebrates her grandmother Marjorie “Nonna” Grande’s record-breaking Billboard Hot 100 achievement

Pop star Ariana Grande is celebrating her nonna, Marjorie Grande, on recently becoming the senior-most person to feature on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The Thank U, Next singer took to her Instagram on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, to announce the news.

Sharing a photo of her Nonna posing on a commemorative plaque, which reads "Certified with Love" at the bottom, she wrote:

"Celebrating the one and only, most beautiful Nonna who has now made history for being the senior most person to ever appear on the @billboard Hot 100 we love and thank you."

Nonna was featured on a track titled, Ordinary Things from Ari's March 2024 album Eternal Sunshine. While the track broke records last month when it hit No. 55 on the chart, Nonna now has a plaque to show for the accomplishment.

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Nonna also featured on Ariana Grande's tracks from albums Yours Truly, and Thank U, Next

Ariana Grande's Nonna is credited as the co-writer and singer for her latest track, Ordinary Things. The song begins with Nonna voicing the outro of the song, reminiscing about her late husband, Frank. She concluded her opening with the following advice:

"And as I told her, never go to bed without kissin' goodnight. That's the worst thing to do. And if you can't, and if you don't feel comfortable doing it, you're in the wrong place. Get out."

At 98, Ariana Grande's grandma seized the title of "the senior most person to ever appear on the @billboard Hot100" from the late Fred Stobaugh, who was 96 when he claimed the honor. Per Billboard, in September 2014, Stobaugh's (as a writer) Oh Sweet Lorraine, performed by Green Shoe Studio featuring Jacob Colgan, charted at No. 42 for a week on the Hot 100.

This is not the first time the Grammy-winner's grandma has appeared on her songs. Marjorie was featured on Grande's Daydreamin from her debut album Your's Truly (2013) and Bloodline from Thank U, Next (2019).

Back in March, during her appearance on The Zach Sang Song, Ariana Grande spoke about Marjorie with the host, stating:

"She was very excited to be on the album and she was very moved by it. And she loved that she was there. And she told many stories about all the different times she’s been on my albums."

Ariana Grande explained that Nonna's words perfectly frame the whole album together. She told Zach that 'the album starts with a question with an answer from a person that I love and trust so implicitly. I cherish what my family has to share with me.'

The question she refers is her album's opening track, Intro (End of the World), where she sings:

"How can I tell if I’m in the right relationship? Aren’t you really s’posed to know that sh*t? Feel it in your bones and own that sh*t? I don’t know."

And the answer was "right smack in the middle" of a voice message that showed Nonna talking to her friend Shirley.

Talking to Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1, the singer revealed she was initially unsure how to end the Album.

"I knew ‘ordinary things’ was the end of the album, I was like, ‘This is the last song, but I wonder how I can put that button on it and have it land emotionally the way that I feel it can, and how can I answer the question?’"

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Eternal Sunshine was released on March 8, 2024, just weeks after Grande's divorce from her husband, Dalton Gomez. The name comes from the 2004 film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, earning critical and commercial success.