When it came to her take on Glenda, Ariana Grande didn't want to stray too far from the original.
evil Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz recently revealed that while recording the film's musical number “Popular,” the actress dropped an attempt at “a little hip-hop” for the Jon M. Chu-directed film adaptation.
“In the spirit of being open to new things for the film, my music team and I thought, let's update the beat. Let's, maybe, I don't know, raise the bar for hip-hop a little bit.” Los Angeles Times. “No, don't do that at all,” Ariana said. “I want to be Glinda, not Ariana Grande playing Glinda.”
Schwartz, who also wrote the Tony-nominated music for the 2003 Broadway musical, was able to update one part of the song with Grande.
“I had this idea for a new vocal ending,” Schwartz added. “Ariana was a little hesitant about it, but I told her that if she had thought about it in the original show, it would have been that way. Once she was reassured that this new part of the music was out of character, she was on board.”
Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Granda as Glinda in “Wicked”
Although Grande rejected the modern version of the song this time around, she and Mika previously collaborated on a dance-pop cover of “Popular,” which she featured on her 2013 debut album. Yours truly.
Based on the 1995 Broadway musical and novel by Gregory Maguire, evil It follows the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda, the Good Witch (Grande) as they first meet at Chase's University and share a life-changing encounter with the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum).
Breaking many box office records, evil It had a worldwide opening of $164.2 million.
