Ariana Grande is OVER the controversy surrounding her ever-changing voice.
Last Month, the thank u, next singer became the subject of a spirited social media brouhaha after appearing on Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast. ICYM the viral clip, Ari totally switched from a higher, breathier octave while speaking about her return to making music to a lower tone while going off-topic in a candid moment.
Re-watch the moment at the 21:45 mark (below):
Fans quickly accused her of using her “customer service voice,” having “two personalities,” and trying to keep “regular Ariana” restrained. Others blamed it on the character of Glinda, which she portrays in this year’s Wicked film. The whole thing was wildly debated online at the time! And now, she’s revisiting the topic.
During an appearance on Evan Ross Katz’s Shut Up Evan podcast on Tuesday, the 31-year-old pop star explained:
“I think it’s just a very normal thing that certain conversations are different tonally. If I’m feeling very bubbly, I’ll sound more bubbly. If I’m feeling more serious, I’m gonna sound more serious. I’m not the same all the time — no one is!”
She doubled down on a previous notion that she alters her voice to “preserve [her] vocal health,” before confirming that she initially got into the habit of speaking in the higher-toned, breathier voice to prep for Glinda:
“Another thing that is very real is that I just spent a long time playing a character every single day and training my voice to do different things for a long time, even before leaving for London [to film Wicked]. The voice is in the body. It’s an instrument, and muscle memory is a real thing. If I slip in and out of mannerisms or tonal shifts that I trained myself to do every single day for two years, that’s kind of a normal thing.”
She went on to compare her situation to that of male actors who go “method” for roles, but don’t receive the same criticism that she did:
“You see with male actors that after the fact, people are always like: ‘Oh, wow! How dedicated he is to his craft. The transformation! He’s a brilliant performer!’”
*Cough* Austin Butler *cough* *cough*
She continued:
“And if God forbid I sneeze like Glinda or make an intonation like her, then I’m crazy and ‘someone should check on her.’ After I made that comment [about changing my vocal placement], I started thinking about the other ways in which this is normal, and not only normal but also: I had a job to do.”
The Yes, And singer concluded:
“It’s a strange thing to be under such a microscope and sometimes people don’t really know what that’s like, so it’s the weirdest thing. We all do that. We all acclimate, and we all have different modes.”
We can understand where she’s coming from here. BUT!!! This isn’t the first time she’s come under fire for the way she speaks! Back in 2018, she was accused of speaking with a Blaccent … which, uh, yeah. We haven’t forgotten about that! Gonna blame THAT on vocal health??
Anyways, you can listen to her full podcast episode (below):
What are your thoughts, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments down below!
[Images via r.e.m. beauty & Podcrushed/YouTube]
