Love starts with a claim in Ariana Grande’s God is a woman, and the god is a woman lyrics make it sound simple: “you’ll believe God is a woman.”
The line is short on paper and huge in the air, a soft vow carried by stacked harmonies and a beat that moves like water.
Forbes called the single a pop and hip-hop hybrid with reggae shades; pop leads, R&B and rap cadences colour the edges, and the finish is cool and glossy.
The sensation is the point. Then the text clicks into place and the promise reads as proof.
Credits explain the sheen without killing the mood. The single arrived July 13, 2018 on Republic as the second Sweetener release, written by Ariana Grande, Ilya Salmanzadeh, Max Martin, Savan Kotecha and Rickard Göransson, produced by Ilya.
It moved with quiet force on radio and sales: No. 8 on the US Hot 100, No. 1 on US Pop Airplay, and a UK peak at No. 4.
The architecture is spare by design. Short phrases like “you love it how I move you” leave space for vowels to carry heat while the rhythm keeps its cool.
Press play while you read.
Meaning lives in the recording and the moving picture. Director Dave Meyers builds a universe where sacred symbols bend toward a woman in the centre, and halfway through the clip a familiar voice enters.
It’s Madonna, delivering the famous pseudo-Ezekiel speech popularised by Pulp Fiction, tweaked to “my sisters,” while Ariana mouths the words on screen.
A pop matriarch hands a younger star the God mic for a few seconds, the camera breathes out, and the title stops reading as provocation. It starts reading as the world of the video.
One image became the calling card: lavender and blue liquid cradling a body that reads like a living fresco.
That’s Alexa Meade’s work – O’Keeffe curves rendered in motion using a vegan milk alternative so the surface would read correctly on camera, with Grande asking for minimal brushwork so the image stayed tactile rather than costume-heavy.
Grande has been open about what she wanted the song to do. Weeks before release, she told a fan it was about sexual female power, about women as cosmos, a theme you can hear when her voice multiplies into a one-person choir.
That framing keeps the god is a woman lyrics from reading as provocation for provocation’s sake; they feel like a boundary set in plain language.
The small jolt at 1:37 deserves its own glance. Mid-ecstasy, the film cuts to a quick tableau of small animals popping up and screeching.
Some recaps called them “screaming gophers,” others saw “puppet meerkats,” and the moment lands like a sly needle scratch that keeps the piece from drifting into pure reverence.
Read one way it’s a wink at the noise that always greets a woman claiming the centre.
Read another it’s a crack of comic timing that resets your ears for the final hook. Take your pick.
Ariana did explain in an interview when asked about it, saying:
“To me, that feels like how I feel at times being a woman who is misunderstood and constantly labeled or pinned down as one thing or another and who’s constantly misunderstood.”
A quick word on that “Explicit” tag even though there’s no profanity on the page.
On streaming platforms the E badge comes from the label or rights holder, not a platform-wide lyric parser.
Apple’s guide and Spotify’s help both point to flags for adult themes as well as strong language.
This lyric sheet is sensual and direct, so the tag fits policy even without swear words.
The vocal is where the theme becomes body. Verse one keeps its steps small and close, little pressure points like “I can tell you how I like it,” then a lift into a pre-chorus that raises the ceiling an inch at a time.
By the hook, one singer becomes a small choir. The line “when all is said and done” circles back, and the ear hears certainty more than boast.
None of it needs a lecture. The song lets breath, echo, and repetition do the talking.
If you want to trace authorship through the mix, follow the quiet choices.
Ilya keeps the drums quick and clean, the bass travels rather than stomps, and the harmony stacks bloom without swallowing the lead.
Grande’s collaborators Max Martin and Savan Kotecha sharpen the phrasing so the words sit naturally on the rhythm, and Rickard Göransson tucks movement into the edges.
That’s why the track feels weightless even when the choir opens up.
The video’s closing gesture arrives like a final line break. Grande recasts The Creation of Adam with women holding the spark, closing the loop between lyric and image. It isn’t scolding.
It’s a visual yes to a line you’ve already heard ten times, a wink that says the holy can sit comfortably inside pleasure when two people choose it.
Ariana has been plain about the concept outside the frame. Weeks before the release she told a fan the track was about “sexual female empowerment & how women are literally everything & the universe is inside of us,” which matches what the arrangement does when her voice multiplies into a one-person choir.
When the Sweetener era hit the VMAs, she set the idea onstage as a Last Supper tableau with an all-female cast, then brought her mom and Nonna forward at the end. The lyric turned into a room you could stand in.
Fans love lore, so here is the clean version of a rumor that’s actually true.
Camila Cabello says she was pitched an early version with a demo chorus and wrote verses over it, then decided it wasn’t her fit.
The final belonged to Grande, and the record people know is the one that carries her name, her breath, her choir.
That ownership matters to how the god is a woman lyrics are understood.
A song doesn’t have to win an argument to change a room. Ariana’s god is a woman hums a soft claim and lets you decide how much of it to take home.
If belief can feel like gravity for three minutes and seventeen seconds, what exactly do the god is a woman lyrics ask you to carry into your next kiss, your next prayer, your next morning.
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Ariana Grande god is a woman Lyrics
Chorus
You, you love it how I move you
You love it how I touch you, my one
When all is said and done
You’ll believe God is a woman
And I, I feel it after midnight
A feelin’ that you can’t fight, my one
It lingers when we’re done
You’ll believe God is a woman
Verse 1
I don’t wanna waste no time, yeah
You ain’t got a one-track mind, yeah
Have it any way you like, yeah
And I can tell that you know I know how I want it
Ain’t nobody else can relate
Boy, I like that you ain’t afraid
Baby, lay me down and let’s pray
I’m tellin’ you the way I like it, how I want it
Pre-Chorus
(Yeah) And I can be all the things you told me not to be
(Yeah) When you try to come for me, I keep on flourishing (Yeah)
(Yeah) And he see the universe when I’m the company (Yeah)
It’s all in me
Chorus
You, you love it how I move you
You love it how I touch you, my one
When all is said and done
You’ll believe God is a woman
And I, I feel it after midnight
A feelin’ that you can’t fight, my one
It lingers when we’re done
You’ll believe God is a woman
Verse 2
(Yeah)
I tell you all the things you should know
So, baby, take my hands, save your soul
We can make it last, take it slow, mm
And I can tell that you know I know how I want it, yeah
But you’re different from the rest
And, boy, if you confess, you might get blessed (Yeah)
See if you deserve what comes next
I’m tellin’ you the way I like it, how I want it (Yeah)
Pre-Chorus
(Yeah) And I can be all the things you told me not to be (Ooh)
(Yeah) When you try to come for me, I keep on flourishing (Yeah)
(Yeah) And he see the universe when I’m the company (Yeah)
It’s all in me (Ooh)
Chorus
You, you love it how I move you (Ooh)
You love it how I touch you, my one
When all is said and done
You’ll believe God is a woman
And I, I feel it after midnight
A feelin’ that you can’t fight, my one
It lingers when we’re done
You’ll believe God is a woman
Outro
Yeah, yeah (God is a woman)
Yeah, yeah (God is a woman, yeah)
My one (One)
When all is said and done
You’ll believe God is a woman
You’ll believe God (God is a woman)
Oh yeah (God is a woman, yeah)
Ooh (One)
It lingers when we’re done
You’ll believe God is a woman
