Is Ariana Grande's "Off the Table" Song About Mac Miller?
Ariana Grande Questions If She's Ready to Love Deeply Again in "Off the Table"
Forty-one minutes and 14 seconds later, and I just have one question: is everyone OK?! Ariana Grande's sixth studio album, Positions, is a sexual, hyped-up, passionate record that reinstates that Grande herself is, in fact, more than OK. She's thriving. She sings about healthy relationships, healthy lifestyle changes, and reflects on her past. In the fifth song, "Off the Table," Grande once again teams up with The Weeknd, where the two tug at our heartstrings and think deeply about important relationships from their pasts.
There's no denying that Positions is a bedroom playlist on it's own — I mean, the song "34+35" speaks for itself (we'll let you do the maths). And The Weeknd has released his fair share of songs about sex — shout-out to Trilogy. But their collaboration for "Off the Table" truly transcends the bedroom and flies right into our feels. It's an emotional ballad where Grande questions if she'll ever be able to love someone deeply again and if she's ready to dive into a serious relationship.
"Never thought you'd be so damn hard to replace / I swear I don't mean to be this way / If I can't have you, is love completely off the table?" she sings. "Do I sit this one out and wait for the next life? Am I too cold? Am I not nice? Might not be quite yet healed already / Should I be goin' too steady? / But I just wanna know is love completely off the table?"
It didn't take long before fans speculated that Grande is referring to her love for Mac Miller, who she dated from 2016 to 2018 before his death in September 2018. It wouldn't be the first time Grande has emotionally reflected on their relationship in her music, as she did in her song "Ghostin" from Thank U, Next in 2019. Interestingly enough, it also sounds like at the end of "Off the Table," Grande samples Miller's song "2009," which she also did in "Ghostin." Listen to the emotional song from Grande and The Weeknd above.
