Old videos by Ariana Grande and One Direction score new YouTube milestones

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Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj have each created many solo videos in their careers, but both stars’ first video to reach the two-billion-view mark on YouTube was a joint production.

The video for Ari and Nicki’s 2016 collab “Side to Side,” directed by Hannah Lux Davis, has just reached two billion views, and surprisingly, it’s the first visual by either star to hit that mark.  “Side to Side,” from Ari’s 2016 album, Dangerous Woman, peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the first top-five single from the project.

And in other “older songs the videos for which just hit a YouTube milestone” news, OneDirection’s clip for their 2015 hit, “Drag Me Down,” has crossed the billion-view mark. It’s the group’s second video to do so, following 2011’s “What Makes You Beautiful.” 

“Drag Me Down,” from Made in the A.M. — 1D’s final album to date and their first without Zayn Malik —  reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100. The video features Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne training to be astronauts before they’re shot into space on a rocket ship.

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