She's been on Broadway, helped anchor a hit Nickelodeon sitcom, and she's getting ready to star in her own spinoff series -- but for the moment, Ariana Grande might be best known for her hit single 'The Way,' currently ensconced in Billboard's Top 10 (and rising).

Billboard (via ONTD) offered readers a behind-the-scenes look at the way the song came together, starting with the involvement of rapper Mac Miller. "I cut my vocal on it," Grande recalled, "and then Mac and I had been hanging out for a while at that point, and I was like, ‘I really want you to feature on this record. What do you think?’ And he said, ‘Sounds like a hit to me.’"

From there, it was just a hop, skip, and a jump between Grande and her new deal with Republic Records -- a rarity for Nickelodeon stars, who tend to sign with Sony. It just took getting the song's demo into the hands of Republic co-founder Monte Lipman. As executive VP Charlie Walk told the magazine, "It was 8:00 one night, and I heard a song coming from Monte’s office through my wall. He called me down and I played a video, a DIY of Ariana Grande. We heard the song and I immediately made the decision to set it up [and] put the song out."

Now that 'The Way' is such a huge hit, the label's main job is making sure Grande can follow it up in a timely manner. "We’d love to have an album out for the fourth quarter," Walk told Billboard, referencing her upcoming 'Daydreamin'' LP. "I’d love to have a body of work by end of summer and get ready to launch multiple singles. That’s the goal and that’s the plan."

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