Ariana Grande Turned Down Hip-Hop Version Of ‘Popular’ While Making ‘Wicked’: “Absolutely Not”

Glenn Garner
·2-min read

When it came to her take on Glinda, Ariana Grande didn’t want to stray too far from the original.

Wicked composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz recently revealed that while recording the movie musical’s track ‘Popular’, the actress shot down an attempt to “hip-hop it up a little bit” on the Jon M. Chu-helmed feature adaptation.

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“In the spirit of being open to new things for the movie, my music team and I thought, let’s refresh the rhythm. Let’s, maybe, I don’t know, hip-hop it up a little bit,” he told the Los Angeles Times. Ariana said, ‘Absolutely not, don’t do it. I want to be Glinda, not Ariana Grande playing Glinda.'”

Schwartz, who also wrote the Tony-nominated music for the 2003 Broadway musical, did manage to update one part of the song with Grande.

“I had this idea for a new vocal ending,” added Schwartz. “Ariana was a little hesitant about it, but I told her that if I had thought of it for the original show, this is how it would have been. Once she was reassured that this new bit of music was coming out of character, she was on board.”

Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Granda as Glinda in ‘Wicked’
Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Granda as Glinda in ‘Wicked’

Although Grande turned down a modern take on the song this time, she and Mika previously collaborated on a ‘Popular’ dance-pop cover, which she featured on her 2013 debut album Yours Truly.

Based on the Broadway musical and the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel, Wicked follows the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda, the Good Witch (Grande) as they first meet at Shiz University and share a life-changing encounter with the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum).

Breaking multiple box office records, Wicked had a $164.2 million worldwide opening.

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