Commentary: Ariana Grande: A pop star obsessed with her fans

According to the New York Daily News, baby-doll singer Ariana Grande said something very unkind about her fans in a closed elevator to the always dubious source, the “industry insider.”

After signing autographs and having her photo taken for a recent radio visit, Grande, who has one of the most interactive relationships with her fans in pop today, stepped into an elevator, waited for it to close and said, “I hope they all [expletive] die.”

Some things are better left unsaid, right? Especially while Grande’s sophomore album, “My Everything,” is starting to slip down the charts. (It debuted at the top but is now at No. 3 two weeks after its release.) The Boca Raton, Fla., native has weathered many claims of diva behavior lately -- including pushing VIPs out of the way, insisting she’s photographed only from the left, and displaying other strange predilections (um, demons).

Whether the above ill-tempered statement is true or not, it shines an uncomfortable spotlight on Grande’s obsessive relationship with her fans -- who are not to be mistaken for her audience. The audience is a rational collective of people who listen to Grande’s music. Her fans, on the other hand, are the force she’s constantly cooing at on her Twitter feed, treating them like a spoiled child who might fling pudding at her face any minute, or a jealous boyfriend who has to be assured every second that he’s the one.

One or two passionate tweets to her “loves,” as she likes to call them, might seem like the usual blown cyber-kisses, but taken as a whole, tweet after tweet? Her feed reeks of insecurity. Grande is just as obsessed with her fans as they are with her -- and together, they’re locked in a claustrophobic cycle of praise, petting and adoration, replete with Kabbalah lessons and emojis. But there’s also a dark undertone: At any minute, her fans might turn on their princess and eat her alive, starting with that ever-present ponytail.

Take a look at a handful of Grande’s tweets from this month.

Between telling her “loves/luvs” or her “babies” that she’s “living for u” and “cherish[es] your love,” Grande frequently retweets random kudos from fans and replies with mash notes like “[heart] [heart] [heart]” or “luv u more boo.” What does Grande’s “luv” represent when she’s so willing to sprinkle it out to anyone?

Grande’s high-maintenance formula is successful -- she has nearly 19 million followers, though her palace was not built overnight -- she and/or her minions have tweeted more than 35,000 times. She’s not alone in this strategy of constantly feeding her baby birds dribbles of affection. To name a few, Taylor Swift, Justin Beiber and Chris Brown are all known for their voracious fan followings who often rise up to battle haters online.

And of course, there’s the OG study in fan mania with the infamous screaming Beatles girls, who greeted the Fab Four on “The Ed Sullivan Show” with shrieking, tears and face-pulling more appropriate to watching a murder than a concert.

As this latest gossip flies all over the Internet, radio stations, blogs and other bases of fan culture have thrown up the obligatory “how could you, Ariana?” posts. Grande is at an important juncture in her career -- does she have the stuff to stick around for the ages or is she just a cute Lil’ Debbie that will be stale by tomorrow?

Her fans are still and always making up their mind, and Grande knows it. Time will only tell if she has kept them as tame as a basket of puppies or if they’ve turned into a pack of wolves.