Ariana Grande shares throwback family photos to celebrate mother birthday

Ariana Grande has shared a series of throwback family photos to celebrate her mother’s birthday.

On Monday, Grande posted several photos on social media to pay tribute to her mother Joan on her 51st birthday.

“Happy birthday to the most incredible human being in the universe @joangrande see u soooon. [sic]”, the Thank U, Next singer tweeted her 63 million Twitter followers.

The post prompted a response from her mother which read: “Thank you darling... I’m two minutes away and I love you sooooo much.”

Several of Grande’s fans were quick to notice Joan’s tweet was similar to Grande’s song “In My Head” in which she sings: “I’m two blocks away, I’m coming over.”

Grande went onto post a series of black-and-white images on Twitter and Instagram of her and her mother sitting on a lawn 23 years ago.

In one photograph, Grande can be seen as a baby dressed in a onesie and sporting a pair of white trainers. Meanwhile, her mother sits in a pair of white trousers and a black jumper with a pixie cut hairstyle.

The singer, who was recently announced as the face of Givenchy’s autumn/winter 2019 campaign, later shared a zoomed-in image of her mother, describing her as “the most beautiful”.

In another snap, Grande joked about the confused look on her face as a toddler.

“Whatever i was feeling here in 1995 .... it hasn’t been solved yet, [sic]” she tweeted.

Elsewhere on Instagram, the 25-year-old shared several videos of her mother in a car, including one of her singing to a young Grande, as well as images of her in her youth.

The singer has spoken of her close relationship with her mother on several occasions in the past.

In December, Grande posted videos of herself singing along to tunes from the likes of Celine Dion and Barbara Streisand as a child with her mother.

At the 2018 MTV VMAs last year, the singer brought her family’s matriarchs – including her mother, grandmother, and cousin – onto the stage as she finished performing her hit single “God is a Woman”.

The foursome stood hand-in-hand at the end of the performance to rapturous applause.

Earlier this year, Grande spoke about depression on social media after revealing she did not think touring was good for her mental health and feels “empty”.

In April, the Thank U, Next singer posted a series of black-and-white photos of actor Jim Carrey to her Instagram story.

The star said she was a dedicated fan of the Ace Ventura actor, having used his name as her AOL instant message username when she was “in like fourth grade”, before quoting the star on depression.

“Depression is your body saying, ‘I don’t want to be this character anymore’,” she wrote. “‘I don’t want to hold up this avatar that you’ve created in the world. It’s too much for me’.”

The quote goes on to encourage others to rethink the meaning of the word “depressed” by associating it with “deep rest”.

The actor later responded to Grande on Twitter, saying he admired her “openness”, adding that he feels “blessed to have such a gifted admirer”.