Ariana Grande has revealed why she appeared to speak in a deeper and more gravelly voice while on Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast.
After noticing that clips from the interview were going viral, she decided to put all those pesky rumours to rest with a sassy comment – and her answer is so simple!
Apparently, the “We Can’t Be Friends” singer speaks in a higher register normally to keep her vocal cords healthy. Her slip-up mid-interview into her “regular” voice was a force of habit from filming Wicked for two years as Glinda The Good Witch. Muscle memory, if you will.
“Habit – speaking like this for two years [while filming Wicked] – and also vocal health,” she explained on TikTok.
“I intentionally change my vocal placement – high [or] low – often depending on how much singing I’m doing. I’ve always done this, BYE.”
Ariana Grande shared some spicy secrets on Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast. (Image: Instagram @podcrushed @pennbadgley)
She’s not wrong, though. It’s nothing new, and she even talked about this in an interview back in 2013.
“I’ve been speaking in a slightly higher placement than I usually speak in, because I’ve been doing a lot of interviews all day, and I’m trying to keep my voice healthy,” she said.
“I usually talk like lazy and gravelly, but I’m trying to place it healthier.”
Here is a video of Ariana herself talking about why she talks in a higher placement in 2013. This “voice switching” is not new. She is a vocalist, caught herself not speaking healthily for her vocal cords, and adjusted. That is it. pic.twitter.com/XJEES4qbd2
— TheGrandeTop10☀️ (@TheGrandeTop10) June 18, 2024
Arianators who have been in the trenches since day one took to X (formerly Twitter) to curse out all the haters.
“Oh she ATEEE them up do it again mother,” one wrote.
“It’s pretty normal for vocalists to preserve their voice and I think Ariana being the vocalist of our generation knows how this works,” another pointed out.
“Y’all will hate on ANYTHING… Ari been doing this her whole career. Find something new to talk about!” a third said.
Ariana found herself slipping into her Glinda voice after playing the character for two years. (Image: Universal)
TikTok vocal coach weighs in on Ariana Grande’s ‘real’ voice
TikTok vocal coach Mona Swain has since claimed Ariana’s decision to speak in a higher register is “one of the smartest things that she could possibly do.”
“For female vocalists, speaking in this low register for a long period of time is so bad for your vocal chords,” she explained.
“[Ariana isn’t] faking her voice necessarily, it’s a smart vocal thing to do. It’s a huge reason she can still sing as well as she did in her teens, and a lot of girls can’t say the same thing.”
So there we have it. Ariana’s ‘fake’ speaking voice has actually been the reason we’ve been blessed with her incredible vocals all this time. Let’s all say ‘thank u, next’ to this saga and move along.
Feature image: Podcrushed & Getty
