Ariana Grande is tired of defending her voice. The singer's cadence and pitch has been dissected in close detail after a now-viral video saw her switch from a lower tone that some are saying is her “real voice” to a high-pitched voice, befitting her Wicked character, Glinda.
The singer addressed the drama with her friend, Evan Ross Katz, on his Shut Up Evan podcast on 9th July after he brought up the video. “There is a clip going viral right now from your recent interview on Pop Crushed – and the clip has you modulating between your lower register and your higher register,” he stated, “which is such a normal thing that people do, especially if you have a large range,” Ariana interjected.
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Evan explained they'd previously discussed the issue, noting: “this is something that you and I went back and forth about because you're my friend, so I get very defensive when I see these conversations happening online, but one thing that I said to you privately was ‘we contain multitudes’ […] we don't just have one voice. My friend texted me and he goes: ‘which one is the Ari you know?’ and I said ‘they both are. They're both her voice’," to which Ariana responded, exasperated, with: “I mean first of all, thank you, thank f*ck, oh my goodness."
She continued: “Another thing that is really real is that I did just spend a long time playing a character [referring to Glinda] every single day, and training my voice to do different things, for a long time[…] The voice is in the body, it's an instrument and muscle memory is a real thing. That's kind of a normal thing, I think, for people who, it's their job to transform.”
It's not the first time Ariana's had to defend herself, or even this clip in particular. At the time, Ariana commented under the video explaining: “habit (speaking like this for two years) and also vocal health. I intentionally change my vocal placement (high/low) often depending on how much singing I’m doing. I’ve always done this BYE.”
Ariana also highlighted the double-standard she feels, compared to male actors who have also transformed their voice for a role. “Sure people make jokes here and there,” she said, “but, it's always after the fact that they're like ‘Oh wow, how dedicated to his craft! What an amazing transformation! He’s a brilliant performer! And then it’s like, god forbid I sneeze like Glinda or something or I make an intonation, it's that I'm crazy or 'should someone check on her?’ It's the weirdest thing. It's a very strange thing,” she mused. "I had a job to do. People change and habits happen and vocal health and so many different things. It's a strange thing to be under such a microscope.”
She shared that she takes her voice (and its changes) seriously. Previously she shared: “prepping for the auditions was like six months — voice lessons every day, acting lessons every day,” while on The Zach Sang Show in February. “I trained every day […] to transform my voice, even my singing voice — everything about me, I had to deconstruct to prove to them I could handle taking on this other person.”
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Back in the podcast, Evan pointed out the sacrifices other singers, like Celine Dion, take to protect their voices including getting the right amount of sleep and skipping alcohol. “It's a full time commitment and it is a lifestyle. It's not something that you can really f*ck around with because it's your lifeline, it's your instrument and it's something that you can't take out of a box and put back in the box. It's right here. I'm the box. So 24/7 it needs to be thought about,” Ariana explained.
As for responding to the trolls, she reminded Evan, "I’ve sent you so many drafts of things that I’ve been like, ‘I want to say this so badly,' and I always come back around to protecting and not taking that bait." She added “protecting that peace and privacy is actually far more important than the understanding and approval of letting people in in that way."
So, Ariana Grande has spoken – she's got no tears left to cry for the haters. “BYE.”
For more from GLAMOUR's Senior Beauty Editor, Elle Turner, follow her on Instagram @elleturneruk
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