"Break Free" is a song by American singer Ariana Grande, featuring Russian-German music producer Zedd.

Overall, the song attained top-ten peaks in multiple countries including Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, and Sweden, as well as reaching the top twenty in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Its music video was directed by Chris Marrs Piliero and pays homage to science fiction films, and has received over 1.2 billion views on YouTube as of 2024.

Consequently, she became the second lead female artist in chart history to simultaneously hold three positions in the top ten on the Hot 100 after Adele.

In a May 2014 interview during which he talked about "Break Free", Zedd spoke about wanting to collaborate with Grande after hearing her voice for the first time at a Universal showcase event where she sang live.

To build hype, Grande started an online countdown for the ten days leading up to "Break Free's" release.

[21] Rachel Sonis from Idolator gave the song a positive review calling it "the club anthem of the summer" and thought that Grande herself is "dipping her toes into exciting new waters for her upcoming record.

[23] Larry Fitzmaurice from Pitchfork also liked the song praising both the production part of the song and the vocal saying that, "from the zippy opening synth line to the verse's insistent pounding, 'Break Free' certainly invites comparisons to Swedish pop mastermind Robyn; as ever, Grande brings her own skyscraping voice in top form, so vocally the comparisons don't stick."

[33] Internationally, the song also reached the top ten in Australia,[34] Austria,[35] Canada,[36] Finland,[37] Ireland,[38] Netherlands,[39] New Zealand,[40] Poland,[41] and Sweden.

[43][44][45] In March 2022, "Break Free" has received attention in the Philippines during a campaign rally for presidential candidate, Vice President Leni Robredo and her running mate, Sen. Francis Pangilinan.

Having an intergalactic theme, Grande stated that the video was inspired by the 1968 sci-fi film Barbarella, the Star Wars series and space in general.

[49][50][51][52] The plot consists of Grande on a fictional planet renouncing her allegiance to an evil regime of extraterrestrials and freeing a group of prisoners from their cages.

Her character succeeds in defeating the villain, and the clip ends with Grande and the prisoners she rescued flying away in a spaceship, partying with the crew, as Beats by Dre products are visible in the scene.

[62] Grande once again performed "Break Free" at the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards on November 9, 2014, opening up the show along with her other single "Problem".

It was also featured in the hit musical-comedy TV series Glee, For its sixth season, The show covered this song in the ninth episode titled "Child Star".

This version is performed by Lea Michele, Josie Totah, Dot-Marie Jones, Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison, and Chord Overstreet as their characters Rachel Berry, Myron Muskovitz, Sheldon Beiste, Sue Sylvester, Will Schuester, and Sam Evans, respectively.

Dakota Lotus, Olivia Sanabia and Ruby Rose Turner performs "Break Free" in the Coop & Cami Ask the World episode, "Would You Wrather Turn 13?"

Reese Witherspoon and Nick Kroll performed "Break Free" in the 2021 film, Sing 2 as their respective roles, Rosita and Gunter.