When it came to playing Glinda in the big screen version of the Broadway musical, Wicked, it was a no-brainer that Ariana Grande would hit all the right notes with her four-octave vocal range.
But where the frequent Saturday Night Live and Sam & Kat thespian rallied for many was in her sheer, subtle and sublime comedic timing as Glinda the pink witch in the Jon M. Chu directed movie. Herein lies the fruit of Grande’s labor: In her first Golden Globe nomination for Supporting Female Actor in a Motion Picture. Her nom was one of four today for Wicked including Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Cinematic and Box Office Achievement and Cynthia Erivo’s Best Female Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
As one Universal insider beamed to us at the premiere about Grande, she’s reminiscent of “Barbra Streisand” in both her song and her silly.
How does Grande make it look so easy?
“I’ve grown up studying comedy. When I was a kid, my favorite movies were the Christopher Guest ones. I loved watching SNL with my family. I got to dip a toe into when I was younger with Victorious and Sam & Cat,” says the multi-platinum and Grammy winner.
“My heroes are Catherine O’Hara, Marisa Tomei, Goldie Hawn, Jennifer Coolidge and Parker Posey. I grew up in a household where comedy was very important. And my family and I liked to do impersonations, and I would do stand-up for my grandparents. I’m grateful that came into use in my life 30 years later,” she explains.
Typically, when a pop singer boards a the feature take of a popular Broadway musical, there’s some vocal adjustments. It’s not unheard of for the vocal range of a certain character get scaled down an octave. But in the case of Grande, you gotta scale up given her whistler range. Grande recently shot down Stephen Schwartz’s suggestion to “hip-hop it up a little bit” on Glinda’s signature ditty “Popular” but she was open to his idea for a high note button.
“It was an idea that he had that he was excited to try out, and I, as a Wicked purist if you will, I was sort of nervous to have any changes made for me. I didn’t want it to seem like changes were being made for me. That change seemed like it was authentic to Glinda and that is why I was excited to give it a try. Anything that helps her communication and her excitedness makes a lot of sense to me,” said Grande.
“I was moved how it felt to sing and to do it in the hallway,” she continued, “I learned the choreography a day before we shot it. I was still recovering from Covid and I had my mask on when I learned it. Once I sang it in the hallway with the choreography, it just felt really purposeful. I am thankful he trusted me with a massive change like that.”
Expounding on how she trained for the role, Grande told us this AM “each vocalist has their own recipe of vocal health tricks that work for them. It was about me pitching my vocal placement up higher, so I could preserve my voice, so I could feel warm around the clock. That’s what speaking in a higher placement does, it protects your voice. I was lucky that Glinda’s voice already sits a little higher anyway.”
She continues, “I trained for three months, six days a week before my first vocal audition, because I wanted to reshape my vocal muscles in an authentic, operatic, coloratura soprano. I have a high range, but the sound is very different from what I usually sing. And that’s everything for where your placing, the roundness of your vibrato, how you’re pronouncing your words. I just wanted to be ready by the time they saw me so that if I had a chance, I was giving it all I got.”
Years ago, Grande expressed on social that her dream role was to play Glinda from Wicked. What does she have an eye on next? The Celine Dion biopic?
She answers, “Glinda Part Two is my next dream role.”
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