Ariana Grande didn’t attend the Grammys, but that didn’t stop her from being at the center of the conversation about — and around — the ceremony.

On Friday she released an album, “Thank U, Next,” and a hot-button video for a new single, “Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored.” And throughout Sunday, she found several ways — some earnest, some petty — to stay at the forefront of online discussion. When she won best pop vocal album, for “Sweetener,” she wrote on Twitter, “I try not to put too much weight into these things,” conceding, “this is wild and beautiful.” She appeared in a psychedelically disorienting commercial for Apple’s Memoji, with an animated Grande head performing “7 Rings.”

When Cardi B won best rap album, Grande fired off a couple of frustrated tweets; her ex-boyfriend, Mac Miller, who died last year, was a nominee. (She later apologized and deleted all of the tweets.) And she posted several photos of herself in the custom Zac Posen dress she was going to wear during the ceremony.

[Who soared and who flopped? See the best and worst of the Grammys.]

This wasn’t the Grammy experience Grande was planning to have. Up until a couple of days ago, she was slated to perform on the broadcast, a plan that imploded in spectacular fashion.