 Yours Truly is the result of three years of work . The project underwent significant conceptual and sonic changes throughout that time . Grande began working on the album in August 2010 while she was filming Victorious and formally started to work on it with a record label after she was signed to Republic Records on August 10 , 2011 . By September 10 of that year , Grande already had twenty songs prepared and was going through the process of narrowing it down to thirteen . The first single , a bubblegum pop song called " Put Your Hearts Up " , was released on December 12 , 2011 . The single was aimed at young audiences , perhaps intending to cater to Grande 's core audience , which at that time was almost entirely made up by kids who knew her from Victorious . During an interview in June 2012 , Grande described everything on the album as being " 50s , 60s doo @-@ wop @-@ inspired " and revealed that two new singles were going to be released before the album , one of which was called " Do You Love Me ? " and featured <unk> . Other songs that Grande had named ( and later leaked ) as being part of the album included " Honeymoon Avenue " , " Voodoo Love " , " Pink Champagne " , " Boyfriend Material " , " Tattooed Heart " , " Daydreamin ' " and " You 're My Only Shorty " . The latter one was eventually recorded by Demi Lovato who included it on her 2011 R & B @-@ infused album Unbroken . 
