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Ariana Grande quashes rumours about her involvement in Kanye West’s Donda

Grammy-winning recording artist Stalone is the voice behind the background vocals in ‘Donda Chant’

Peony Hirwani
Wednesday 01 September 2021 11:48 BST
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Footage leaked from Kanye West listening party

Ariana Grande has set the record straight by confirming that she isn’t a part of Kanye West’s 10th studio album Donda.

The 28-year-old singer’s fans were speculating whether the pop star collaborated with the “Follow God” rapper after noticing that the background vocals in the title track of the album sounded quite similar to hers.

However, Grande responded to the rumours in an Instagram story on Monday (30 August) by revealing that Grammy-winning recording artist Stalone is the voice behind the background vocals in “Donda”.

“Still so humbled and excited,” Stalone wrote on Instagram Stories, re-posting the “Thank U, Next” singer’s caption. “Thank you again, Ari.”

She also posted a message on Twitter saying: “I love Ari and so grateful that my vocals would even be compared to hers.”

On Sunday (29 August), West’s label officially released Donda, more than a month after it was originally meant to come out.

The 26-track album, with the cover art as a black square, is 108 minutes long.

Among the artists to appear on the album are Jay-Z, The Weeknd, Young Thug, Travis Scott, Lil Baby, Kid Cudi, and the late Pop Smoke.

West’s album amassed more than 60 million streams on Apple Music in the US on the first day of its release, while also pulling in the third-highest number of streams ever to be recorded on the platform in the span of 24 hours.

Soon after it’s release, Ye released a statement claiming that his label, Universal Music Group, released his album without his approval and “blocked” a song from being on the record.

Read The Independent’s zero-star review of the album here.

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