- Marjorie Grande takes the record as oldest person to be named on a track at 98 years old
- She appears on ‘Ordinary Things’ by her granddaughter, Ariana Grande
- Previous record holder was Fred Stobaugh, who was 96 when ‘Oh Sweet Lorraine’ charted
Some wise people say it is never too late to try something new, and Marjorie Grande is proof of that – at the tender age of 98, she has become a hit recording artist.
Marjorie – yes, she is the grandmother of pop star Ariana Grande – has just become the oldest named artist on a Billboard Hot 100 track.
Marjorie, referred to by Ariana as ‘Nonna’, is a featured artist on Ariana’s track ‘Ordinary Things’, where she appears towards the end of the song in a spoken section, where she offers her experience and talks about her late husband.
‘Ordinary Things’ landed in the Hot 100 at number 55, while the parent album it was taken from has been number one in the album chart.
Ariana recently explained to Zane Lowe in an interview on Apple Music how the track came about. She said she was looking for something to close her album ‘Eternal Sunshine’ and found it on the voice notes in her phone. Ariana says she often records her Nonna when they are talking as she is so funny. In one voice note, Marjorie talks about her late husband, and that was what was used on the track. It includes the line ‘never go to bed without kissin’ goodnight’.
The previous oldest person to chart on the Hot 100 was the late Fred Stobaugh, who charted in September 2013 with his song, ‘Oh Sweet Lorraine’ – written in tribute to his late wife, to whom he was married for nearly 73 years – when he was 96 years old. He passed away in 2016 aged 99.
