Ariana Grande is putting criticism about her speaking voice to rest. After a clip from her recent interview on Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast started circulating online — thanks to fans pointing out how drastically she changes her pitch and cadence at one point — the pop star explained Tuesday (June 18) why the shift in her tone is perfectly natural.
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In one TikTok post featuring the interview clip, Grande starts off speaking about recording new music in a lower tone before suddenly shifting to a higher register. “The Voice Change??” the uploader captioned the video.
In the replies, however, the “Thank U, Next” singer herself jumped in to put an end to other commenters accusing her of faking her manner of speech, noting that her higher tone comes through out of “habit” and “speaking like this for two years” while playing Glinda on the set of Wicked.
“and also vocal health,” she continued. “i intentionally change my vocal placement (high / low) often depending on how much singing i’m doing.”
The musician also pointed out, “i’ve always done this BYE.”
The interview clip isn’t the first time fans have noticed a change in Grande’s speaking voice, though it might be the last now that she’s provided clarification. In March, similar critiques emerged about her higher-pitched tone when she presented at the 2024 Oscars alongside her Wicked costar Cynthia Erivo, even though the two-time Grammy winner has been open about transforming herself in preparation for the role of Glinda.
“Prepping for the auditions was like six months — voice lessons every day, acting lessons every day,” she said on The Zach Sang Show in February. “I trained every day … to transform my voice, even — like, my singing voice — everything about me, I had to deconstruct to prove to them I could handle taking on this other person.”
But while some people were focused on her speaking patterns, many fans were more excited about Grande revealing on Podcrushed that she has more new music on the way — possibly in the form of a deluxe edition of her Billboard 200-topping album Eternal Sunshine. “I’ve been living in the studio,” she said on the show. “I went to the studio the day after the Met [Gala] and stayed there for 10 days. I’ve been writing a lot, and maybe there’s more. I want to do a deluxe at some point.”
Watch the interview below.