Rodgers and Hammerstein Top the Charts For 6th Time Thanks to Ariana Grande's '7 Rings'

In January, Ariana Grande dropped her latest single, and its accompanying music video, "7 Rings." The song features her sampling the famous Sound of Music number, "My Favorite Things." You can listen to the song and watch the video here!

The song just topped Billboard's singles chart for the 6th time, its 8th time total being on the chart. Last week it was at #2.

The song is credited to 10 writers, but Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote the original "My Favorite Things," control 90% of the songwriting royalties. That makes this chart-topping hit not only a huge victory for Grande, but a huge victory for the musical theatre legends as well!

Ted Chapin, the overseer of the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalog, recently commented on the song's success.

"We are always open to the notion of modern artists having a new look at Rodgers and Hammerstein and their work," he said, in a recent interview with Forbes. "7 Rings' is certainly far from 'The Sound of Music,' but it just shows how strong and resilient the songs written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II are."

According to Billboard, the song was written after Grande had a particularly rough day, following her extremely publicized breakup with fiance Pete Davidson. The singer took a group of six of her friends on a shopping spree, buying each of them diamond engagement rings, that they used as friendship rings. Grande thought this was the perfect inspiration for a song.

Watch the music video for 7 Rings below:

Ariana Grande was seen on Broadway in 2008, when she played the role of Charlotte in the musical 13, for which she won a National Youth Theatre Association Award. She played the role of Miriam in the first reading of the forthcoming musical Cuba Libre composed by Desmond Child. Most recently, she appeared as Penny Pingleton in Hairspray Live! on NBC.

Grande released her debut album, Yours Truly, in 2013 and peaked at the top of the US Billboard 200. Grande's second album, My Everything (2014), also topped the US charts and featured four top ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100, the most by any artist in 2014. Her third album, Dangerous Woman (2016), became her first number-one album in the United Kingdom. She most recently released Sweetener (2018) and Thank U, Next (2019), with the former winning a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, while the latter had largest streaming week ever for a pop album. With the singles "Thank U, Next" , "7 Rings", and "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored", Grande became the first solo artist to hold the top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously, and the second musical act overall after The Beatles in 1964. Grande is also the first artist to have the lead singles from each of their first five studio albums debut within the top-ten on the US charts.

After long and highly distinguished careers with other collaborators, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II joined forces in 1943 to create the most successful partnership in American Musical Theatre. Prior to joining forces, Rodgers collaborated with lyricist Lorenz Hart on musical comedies such as Pal Joey, On Your Toes, Babes In Arms, and more, while Hammerstein brought new life to operetta and created the classic Show Boat with Jerome Kern.

Oklahoma!, the first Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, introduced an integrated form that became known as "the musical play." Their shows that followed included Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. Collectively, the Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals have earned Tony, Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, Pulitzer, and Olivier Awards. The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization is part of Concord Music.