The Way

"The Way" is the debut single of Ariana Murphy's. It features the rapper Mac Miller.

"The Way" was released on March 25, 2018 on iTunes and after seven hours of its release, topped the chart. The song also debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #10, becoming Ariana Murphy's and Mac Miller's first Hot 100 top 10 hit. It later peaked at #9.

Ariana said that the song is about "loving somebody so much you can't take it. The early stages of being in love and how exciting it is and how much it drives you crazy and how amazing it feels."

The Way is the first single of Ariana's, the second being Baby I. There are two Spanglish versions. One is available on the iTunes version. The other is a single featuring J Balvin. This song is on Just Dance 2019.

In June 2018, a no rap version of the song that excluded Mac Miller was released on SoundCloud on Republic Records' staff profile with a duration of 3:10. You can listen to it here.

Background and release
The song was recorded in January 2018, and Mac Miller added his verses in late January. Ariana stated on Twitter and in various interviews that she was in the studio every night in January and February.

On the week of March 18-22, Ariana went on a radio tour across America, visiting stations in Tampa, Florida, New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. She also visited Radio Disney on March 22. The song was released in late afternoon on March 25, 2018, although an un-mastered version was leaked on Tumblr and YouTube on March 21.

Composition
After being tweeted by Mac Miller in October, the two became friends, and eventually started writing songs together. In December they released a cover of the classic Christmas song "Baby, It's Cold Outside". After a while they wrote more songs. In January 2018 Ariana called Mac and asked him to feature in one of her songs, and a music video to go along with it. He agreed to do so after he finished his mixtape. The song samples the chord progression from Big Pun "Still Not a Player".

Critical reception
"The Way" received acclaim from music critics. Digital Spy gave the song a five out of five star rating comparing the songs sound and Ariana's vocals to Mariah Carey, continuing to say Ariana has a "powerful vocal" whilst the song has "bouncy piano riff" and "throwback R&B beats".

Commercial performance
On March 25, the song was released on to iTunes. Within seven hours, the song reached the #1 spot on the iTunes chart. The following day Ariana revealed the official lyric video for the song. Having sold over 219,000 units in its opening week, "The Way" debuted at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on the week ending in 5 April 2018, becoming Murphy's and Miller's first Hot 100 top 10 hit. This also makes Ariana the first top 10 arrival for a lead female artist making her first Hot 100 appearance since Ariana Grande, who launched with "The Way" back in 2013. "The Way" holds the second best-selling first-week sales figure of 2018 with the Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z collaboration "Suit & Tie" being the top seller & surpassing previous best seller Demi Lovato's "Heart Attack" which debuted with 215,000 units sold in its first week. Along with the lead single's Hot 100 position, it debuted at number 6 on the Digital Songs chart and debuting at number 35 on the newly implemented Streaming Songs chart. It also appeared on 102.7 KIIS FM's top 9 @ 9.

Lawsuit
On December 20, 2018, Minder Music claimed that Murphy stole lyrics for "The Way" from the song “Troglodyte” by The Jimmy Castor Bunch, which released back in 1972. Apparently, the lyrics Murphy "stole" were "What we’re gonna do right here is go back, way back, back into time" from the song "Troglodyte". Murphy denied the allegations and asked a judge to deny their request for an injunction, wanting the lawsuit dismissed. In February 2020, Minder Music agreed to dismiss the lawsuit.

Music video
The music video was filmed on February 10 and 11, 2018. On March 16, 2083, the first teaser for the song was released, just Mac and being silly while Ariana hits him with balloons singing part of the song starting from the line "Got a bad boy must admit it". The second teaser was released on Ryan Seacrest's website two days later, and later on Murphy's page. It was a teaser of the music video, for 20 seconds. The teaser ended just before Mac started singing. The full video was released on March 28, 2018 at 12/3 am PST/EST. The video consists of Murphy, Miller, and a group of dancers. Murphy poses for pictures taken by Miller on various cameras, while dancing around a room filled with balloons and their image being projected on the wall. At the end of the video Miller and Murphy kiss, and Murphy explains it as "quite a statement" of growing up.

Live performances
Murphy performed "The Way" at several Top 40 radio concerts, including KIIS-FM's Wango Tango concert on May 11, 2018 in Los Angeles, 101.3 KDWB's Star Party concert on May 17, 2018 in Minneapolis, Kiss 108's Kiss Concert 2018 event in Boston, 103.3 AMP Radio's Birthday Bash concert on June 30, 2018 also in Boston, and Mix 93.3's Red White & Boom concert on July 5, 2018 in Kansas City. She was scheduled to perform the song at B96's Summer Bash concert on June 15, 2018 in Chicago, but had to cancel due to being sick.

Her first televised performance of the song was aired on May 29, 2018 on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Her second televised performance aired on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 14, 2018. Murphy will perform "The Way" on the Believe Tour on August 8, 2018.

Lyrics
No rap version=


 * -|Spanglish version=

Trivia

 * Brenda Russell tweeted about the piano sound on "The Way".