Ariana Grande shares raunchy meaning of Side to Side

Pop star Ariana Grande's new song Side To Side details the painful aftermath of having too much sex.

The 23-year-old belted out the sexually-charged single at the MTV Video Music Awards with collaborator Nicki Minaj on Sunday (28Aug16), and while Ariana and her dancers staged a fitness-themed performance, which opened with the ladies riding exercise bicycles, she admits the tune is actually about having an overly-active sex life.

"That whole song is about riding leading to soreness," the singer confessed to MTV. "'Ride d**k bicycle' is the lyric, indeed."

The line in question features in rapper Minaj's verse, in which she spits: "This the new style with the fresh type of flow/Wrist icicle, ride d**k bicycle/Come true yo, get you this type of blow/If you wanna Minaj, I got a tricycle."

The hook also has Ariana singing, "I been here all night/I been here all day/And my, you got me walking side to side."

Ariana and Nicki hinted at the sexual nature of the track at the end of the MTV VMAs gig, as two male dancers got on their knees and posed with their heads in front of the stars' crotches.

The erotic meaning of the song surprised celebrity fan Lena Dunham, who took to Twitter to express her shock and subsequent delight after being informed of the tune's insinuation by her boyfriend, fun. rocker Jack Antonoff.

She tweeted, "Jack just explained that the song Side to Side is about getting railed so hard you can't walk. SO MANY EMOTIONZ (sic)".

Ariana, who recently began dating rapper Mac Miller, responded to actress Lena's message with a cryptic series of emojis, including a magnifying glass, an eye, and a bicycle.

The Bang Bang hitmaker's exes also include rapper Big Sean and former The Wanted star Nathan Sykes.