Given her contemporary pop star status, you might have thought that Ariana Grande would have been keen to modernise some of the musical arrangements for her songs in the screen version of Wicked, but not a bit of it.
In a recent Q&A that took place after a showing of the movie - and was moderated by none other than Billie Eilish - Grande confessed that she’s “somewhat of a purist when it comes to making musical changes,” and that, being such a fan of the world that author L Frank Baum created, she considered herself to be “the nerdy Oz historian that worked on the movie - like the gatekeeping fangirl in the room.”
That purism manifested itself in Grande’s insistence that the original arrangements of her Wicked songs be retained. When Eilish asked her what, going into the movie, were her ‘non-negotiables’, Grande cited the example of the occasion that she felt she had to “protect Glinda” (her Wicked character) by turning down a suggestion from Stephen Schwartz, the original composer and lyricist.
“There was a version of Popular in the very beginning that had hip-hop drums in it,” she confirmed. “Hip-hop drums!?” laughed an aghast Eilish - and the audience, for that matter.
“I was like, ‘how do I have this conversation in the most loving, respectful way?’” Grande recalls, sensing that things could get awkward if she told Schwartz what she thought of this ‘switch-up’.
“I was like, ‘this cannot happen’. How different would life be today if Popular had trap drums in it?” she joked. “It’s just, there’s a time and a place and it’s not with Glinda, because she claps on one and three - and that’s OK - but we do have to be in character, and she doesn’t have that kind of rhythm.”
How did Grande end up broaching the subject, then? “I just kind of mustered up the courage to say ‘you know, respectfully, I think maybe she does not have that in her, you know, and we have to lead with the honesty of the story.’”
Grande got her way, and went on to tell Eilish that “We had this incredible responsibility of honouring this source material that has been so loved and iconic for 22 years now, and also breathing our new truths into it and finding new meaning for these lines that we’ve sung in the shower for this whole time.”
On ditching the trap drums, Eilish - a Wicked superfan herself, it turns out - told Grande: “I’m so glad you pushed for that,” and she was also keen to discuss the motivation for having Grande and her co-star Cynthia Erivo singing live during filming.
“I think, for the emotional integrity of what happens in the scenes, and also - for Glinda particularly - the ability to improv… like, you can’t be married to a track. You can’t be, like, married to certain choices. You have to be able to have the freedom to surprise each other and play and make things up on the spot. Or, if it’s an emotional scene, you’re not going to sound perfect. Your voice is going to crack, and that’s really special to preserve that and to have that option available.”
