Thursday night (December 6) Ariana Grande received Billboard's Woman of the Year honor at their empowering Women in Music event. After performing her current No. 1 hit "thank u, next" for the crowd, she gave a powerful speech while being moved to tears.

Ariana spoke about this past year being the best in her career, while simultaneously the worst year of her personal life. It was an honest, vulnerable speech, and a side of Ariana we don't often get to see so publicly.

Toward the end of the speech she also talked more about her impending new album, which she's been teasing on social media since "thank u, next" dropped early November. We already knew she's been hard at work on the new tunes with friends and writing partners Victoria Monét and Tayla Parx, but now we know a bit more about what to expect.

"I'm so grateful we got to make this next album together," Ariana said, addressing the two women she's been working with. "I wouldn't have made it through this last chapter without you guys and without this project."

"I'm really looking forward to everyone hearing it. It was really special," Grande continues before delving deeper into how she views the album. "I feel like we made, like... if [TheFirst Wives Club were an album, that's the album. You know?"

Ariana is, of course, referring to the 1996 comedy starring Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, and Goldie Hawn, as three divorced women who team up to get revenge on their ex-husbands after they left them for younger women.

It seems Ariana is referring perhaps to the themes and lyrics of the music on her new album, as its hard to determine what the actual sound would be from this reference. One of the movie's more famous scenes consists of the three women performing Lesley Gore's empowering 1963 hit "You Don't Own Me," which Ari referenced in her debut performance of "thank u, next" on Ellen last month.

It's clear that First Wives Club has been a reference in Ariana's mind for awhile now, perhaps even since she first broke things off with then-fiancé Pete Davidson in October.

Here's hoping we get this new album before the new year, so we can finally understand what Ariana truly means when uses a '90s movie to describe it.

Next, check out 23 Ariana lyrics that are definitely NSFW:

 

 

More From