Keith Urban Covers Ariana Grande’s ‘We Can’t Be Friends’: ‘Song Is Audible Heroin’

Thania Garcia
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Keith Urban is quickly becoming a prominent member of the Ariana Grande fan club thanks to his immense appreciation for the pop singer’s earworm “We Can’t Be Friends.”

On Monday, the country act appeared at an intimate show and performed an acoustic, and somehow further dramatized version of Grande’s catchy single. Urban posted video of the performance on his socials, and captioned the post, “This song is audible heroin.”

More from Variety

Urban repeated the latter line in an interview with People where he gushed over the Billboard chart-topping song, calling it his “absolute current obsession song right now.” He continued, “I don’t know what is going on with that song, but I cannot stop playing it. It’s like audible heroin. Literally, I have to have another hit. I play that thing over and over and over.”

Influenced by Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own,” “We Can’t Be Friends” was produced by Grande, alongside alongside Max Martin and Ilya. “Ariana has always had that unique vocal gift,” Urban told People. “On top of that, she’s a phenomenal writer and producer. So it was easy for me to stumble upon that new album. I was interested in it before it came out.”

“We Can’t Be Friends” was the second single for Grande’s seventh studio record, “Eternal Sunshine.” The album arrived in March and became Grande’s sixth No. 1 album while “We Can’t Be Friends” also topped the Billboard Hot 100 following the album’s release. These feats marked Grande as the first woman artist in history to have two albums produce multiple No. 1 hits (she previously hit the summit with “Thank U, Next’s” eponymous single, and “7 Rings”).

See Urban’s post below.

Best of Variety

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.