Breakthrough with Nickelodeon

Her character was compared to "Brittany Murphy's performance as the hapless Tai in Clueless" (1995) and described as being "very impressionable and easily swayed" but "generally sweet." Season two premiered on in April 2011 to 6.2 million viewers, becoming the highest rated episode of Victorious.In 2010, she played the role of Miriam in the musical Cuba Libre, which was written and produced by songwriter Desmond Child. After the first season of Victorious wrapped, Grande wanted to focus on her music career and began working on her debut album in August 2010. To strengthen her vocal range, she began working with vocal coach Eric Vetro. She made her first musical appearance on the track "Give It Up" on the soundtrack Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show in August 2011. While filming Victorious, Grande made several recordings of herself singing covers of songs by Adele, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, and she uploaded them to YouTube. A friend of Monte Lipman, CEO of Republic Records, came across one of Grande's videos. Impressed by her vocals, he sent the links to Lipman, who signed her to a recording contract. She released her first single, "Put Your Hearts Up", in December 2011, which was recorded for a teen-oriented pop album that was not issued. She later disowned the track for its bubblegum pop sound, saying that she had no interest in recording music of that genre. The song was later certified gold by the RIAA. Also in 2011, she voiced the fairy, Princess Diaspro, in 13 episodes of the Nickelodeon version of the Italian animated television series Winx Club, appeared in Greyson Chance's music video for a song called "Unfriend You" from his album Hold On 'til the Night, portraying Chance's ex-girlfriend, and voiced the title role in the English dub of the Spanish-language animated film Snowflake, the White Gorilla. A second soundtrack, Victorious 2.0, was released on June 5, 2012 as an extended play, featuring Grande in the song "Don't You (Forget About Me)". After three seasons, Victorious was not renewed. The finale aired in February 2013. The third and final Victorious soundtrack, Victorious 3.0, was released on November 6, 2012, featuring Grande in the song "L.A. Boyz". The music video for "L.A. Boyz" features Grande and Victoria Justice performing in front of their cast mates during an episode of Victorious. In December 2012, Grande collaborated on the single version of "Popular Song", a duet with British singer and songwriter Mika.She also starred over the holiday season as Snow White in a pantomime-style musical theatre production called A Snow White Christmas, together with Charlene Tiltonand Neil Patrick Harris, at the Pasadena Playhouse. Meanwhile, Nickelodeon created an iCarly and Victorious spin-off starring Jennette McCurdy and Grande. The buddy sitcom, titled Sam & Cat, paired Grande and McCurdy as roommates who form an after-school babysitting business, reprising their respective roles as Cat Valentine from Victorious and Sam Puckett from iCarly. The pilot aired on June 8, 2013, and the show was immediately picked up by the network. The following month, Nickelodeon doubled Sam & Cat's original twenty-episode order for season one, making it a forty-episode season. Despite its success in the ratings, the series was canceled. The final episode aired on July 17, 2014.