off the table (with The Weeknd)

“off the table” marks Ariana Grande’s second collaboration with The Weeknd, and is the fifth track from Grande’s latest album “positions”. The first time Grande and The Weeknd worked together was on their 2014 hit “Love Me Harder”, which appeared on Grande’s second studio album “My Everything”. “off the table” was written by The Weeknd, Grande, Shintaro Yasuda, Steven Franks, Tommy Brown and Travis Sayles, with Brown and Shintaro in charge of production.

“off the table’ is an R&B song that tackles the issues that arise when rekindling a relationship, as well as the difficulty of healing and wondering if love will ever be an option again. The song is rumoured to be about one of Grande’s ex-partners the late Mac Miller, who sadly passed away due to an overdose in September 2018. In a virtual interview with the Zach Sang Show on the album’s release date, Grande spoke about the song in detail:

“This wasn’t written from a “100% this is how I feel”, but that fear is something that exists, of course, in your head, when you let the trauma part of your brain take the command seat. That of course exists, and your brain is constantly telling you, “no, you don’t deserve this” or “no, this won’t happen” or “yes, this person is too good to be true” or “yeah”…you will be frozen in this period of recovery for the rest of your life. There are moments when that traumatic ¨part of your brain takes the command seat and tells you those things, so I think this was written from that place, and not from a real “I’m in my right mind and I know that I deserve love” place. It was just from the fear place… once you write something, it kind of goes away a little bit as well… expressing it made it feel so much less legitimate”.
There is currently no music video for “off the table”, but the audio on Grande’s YouTube channel has 9.2 million views and over 370 thousand likes since its upload on the 30th October 2020.
Release Date: 30th October 2020

Songwriter/s: Abel Tesfaye, Ariana Grande, Shintaro Yasuda, Steven Franks, Tommy Brown & Travis Sayles

Producer/s: Tommy Brown & Shintaro

Label: Republic

Chart Rankings: “off the table” (with The Weeknd) has reached the follow chart positions since its release:

– #32 in Australia
– #27 in Canada
– #164 in France
– #18 on the Billboard Global 200
– #56 in Greece
– #69 in Lithuania
– #93 in the Netherlands
– #4 in New Zealand
– #43 in Portugal
– #16 in Sweden
– #87 on the UK Download chart
– #35 on the US Billboard Hot 100
– #10 on the US Rolling Stone Top 100

The lyrics to “off the table” can be accessed here: LINK

Ariana Grande on Spotify: LINK

Ariana Grande on Apple Music: LINK

The Weeknd on Spotify: LINK

The Weeknd on Apple Music: LINK