Ariana Grande appeared to let her real voice slip in a viral interview clip, and now social media users can’t wrap their heads around it.
If you’re a fan of the pop star, then you probably know that her natural speaking voice has been dissected on the internet for years, with some people accusing the singer of seemingly changing the sound of her voice at a moment’s notice.
After a clip from Grande’s Monday appearance on Penn Badgley’s “Podcrushed” podcast went viral, fans noticed how quickly her voice switched from a deep tone to higher pitched state in the middle of a sentence during the interview.
Social media users on X (formerly Twitter) sounded off with mixed reactions over her drastic, fluctuating vocals, with many accusing her of faking her tone of speech.
Other fans stepped in to defend the “Thank u, next” singer by pointing out that her change in voice is a method for keeping her vocal cords in tact.
Grande then offered up an explanation for her random voice changes in the comments section of one of the clips on TikTok amid the hoopla.
She wrote that using her higher pitched voice has become a “habit” after “speaking like this for two years” to play her “Wicked” character, Glinda. The actress also cited “vocal health” as a reason.
“I intentionally change my vocal placement (high / low) often depending on how much singing i’m doing,” Grande added, according to Billboard. “I’ve always done this BYE.”
Back in March, the actress stumped fans again after she appeared to present an award at the 96th Academy Awards using the same voice she used to play the powerful sorceress from the Land of Oz in the upcoming musical fantasy film.
She previously addressed her vocal changes on the “Zach Sang Show.”
Explaining that she had to “completely erase popstar Ari” to prepare for “Wicked,” the Grammy-winning artist went on to shout out her acting and vocal coaches for training her.
“I trained every day with Nancy [Banks] and with Eric [Vetro] 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,” she told Sang in a February interview.
Grande added: “I had to completely erase popstar Ari, the person they know so well, because it’s even harder to believe someone as someone else when you’re so branded as one thing. I had to go all the way to strip that down, come into my callback with no makeup, my hair down, I looked like I was 11 years old.”