Ariana Grande, the guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, is a former child actress who has been one of the biggest pop stars on the planet for the past 12 years and is now, in recognition of her first starring role in a film — playing Galinda, or Glinda, the Good Witch, opposite Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba, the Wicked Witch, in Jon M. Chu’s big screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Wicked — an Oscar-nominated actress, as well.
Before discussing Wicked, let’s first establish just how big of a music star Grande is:
- She was Spotify’s most streamed female artist of the 2010s, despite only making her debut three years into the decade.
- She was the first artist ever to have the lead single of each of her first four albums debut in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.
- She has had a total of 23 singles crack the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, nine of which went to #1 — “Die for You,” “Thank U, Next,” “7 Rings,” “Save Your Tears,” “Stuck with U,” “Rain on Me,” “Positions,” “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends.” And she has had eight albums crack the top 10 of the Billboard 200, six of which went to #1 — Yours Truly, My Everything, Sweetener, Thank U, Next, Positions and Eternal Sunshine.
- And she has been nominated for 18 Grammys, winning two, best pop vocal album for Sweetener in 2019 and best pop duo/group performance for “Rain on Me” in 2021.
Beyond that:
- She was one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2016, with Jason Robert Brown describing her voice as an “extraordinary, versatile, limitless instrument,” and in 2019, with Troye Sivan calling her as “an industry game changer” and “the biggest artist in the world.”
- She was ranked #9 on Billboard’s 2024 list of the 25 greatest pop stars of the 21st century, with the magazine declaring, “Her standing today as a veritable icon is less a reflection of the efficacy of established systems that promoted her rise, and more a testament to her enduring, generational talent.”
- And she was ranked #43 on Rolling Stone’s 2023 list of the 200 greatest singers of all time, with the magazine highlighting her “whistle tone that rivals Mariah Carey’s in her prime and a voice that is intricate and honeyed across four octaves” and labeling her a “genius.”
Just as remarkably, she has endured — and been there for her loyal fans, known as “Arianators” — through thick and thin, including tragedies that would have crushed many others, such as a 2017 terrorist attack outside of a concert that she had just completed in Manchester, England, which claimed the lives of 22 attendees; and the premature loss of a loved one and collaborator, Mac Miller, in 2018.
And Grande has now emerged as a beacon of light in the movie version of Wicked, a property with which she fell in love when she was still Ariana Grande-Butera, a diminutive theater kid from Boca Raton, Florida, who saw a performance of the show by the original Broadway cast while on a trip to New York with her family.
When the film adaptation finally began to come together, she fought to be considered for it. When she got the part of Glinda, she insisted on playing it as it has always been, as opposed to having it tailored for her. And when she played the part, she brought to it a rare understanding of the pros and cons of being “Popular” — and absolutely crushed it.
Wicked currently has a rating of 88 percent with critics and 95 percent with fans on Rotten Tomatoes. It landed an A CinemaScore. It has grossed $718 million worldwide. And she personally was nominated for the best supporting actress Golden Globe Award and is nominated for the best supporting actress Critics Choice, SAG, BAFTA and Academy awards.
Over the course of a conversation at the LA offices of The Hollywood Reporter, the 31-year-old reflected on all of the above, plus much more.
