Ariana Grande’s new album, Dangerous Woman, is a real ice cream cone’s worth of dance pop, an assemblage of summer jams that showcase her formidable voice and ability to stretch it between powerful diva and breathy coquette. One theme this album continues from her last is her desire for agency, which she takes, and for the capacity to exist as a sexual adult being in the universe, which she explores further here. And one of the perks of being an adult woman pop star is that you can cast whomever you want in your video and then make out with that person, as happens here with this Very Nice Man, whose name is Don Benjamin, and who was a former contestant on America’s Next Top Model.
For “Into You,” as gossamer a crush song as any Grande’s ever done, she lays down her emotions for a new love while I, at the same time, lay down my emotions for this Very Nice Man co-starring in her video. “A little less conversation and a little more touch my body,” she sings, before running around and checking into a hotel with this Nice Man. (Side note: the styling is tight, I’m very into the way the slouch of her jeans cascades into the stiletto boots.) And the narrative is great, too—she’s at some chichi party with a scrub in a blazer who mistreats her, then is rescued by the Very Nice Man who’s acting as security at said party. Ah, being saved by your prince, the bouncer in the club—a modern-day fairy tale.
Don’s Instagram is here, by the way. Go ahead. Click.