Ariana Grande spoke out in her defense on Tuesday after she shocked her fans by speaking in two distinctly different voices during a recent podcast recording.
The 30-year-old singer and actress was speaking on last week’s episode of Podcrushed with Penn Badgley while delving into her childhood and her experiences working for Nickelodeon.
One clip in particular ignited social media shock, as it showed the actress dipping into a lower, huskier voice in an unguarded moment, before suddenly pitching her voice considerably higher.
After fans registered their surprise, with some wondering if she was intentionally trying to mask her real voice, Ariana took to social media to clear things up, and she suggested that there were health reasons at play for her change of pitch.
It was the first time in recent months that fans have been puzzled by her oft-changing voice, as she surprised viewers of this year’s Academy Awards ceremony when she used a particularly high-pitched murmur as she presented an award with her Wicked costar Cynthia Erivo.
Ariana Grande spoke out in her defense on Tuesday after she shocked her fans by speaking in two distinctly different voices during a recent recording of Podcrushed with Penn Badgley
Ariana indicated the change was a matter of ‘habit’ — likely due to using a different voice while filming Wicked — and it was also an attempt to to maintain her ‘vocal health’
In her response, which she posted in the comments to a TikTok video highlighting her rapid-fire vocal change, Ariana indicated that part of the issue was that she had gotten used to speaking in her higher voice for Wicked, in which she stars as Galinda Upland, later known as Glinda the Good.
‘habit (speaking like this for two years) and also vocal health :),’ she explained in her comment.
‘i intentionally change my vocal placement (high / low) often depending on how much singing i’m doing,’ she continued, adding an emoji with tears streaming down its face.
‘i’ve always done this BYE,’ she added to abruptly end the speculation.
While Ariana did not specifically mention it, several fans speculated that she switched back to her higher voice to avoid using vocal fry — a slightly croaky vocal tone that occurs when people speak in low, relaxed tones — as many people believe that vocal fry can damage a person’s vocal cords or singing voice.
However, that appears to be largely a myth, and vocal fry does not negatively affect one’s voice, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
However, speaking with vocal fry may make it more likely that someone will develop that habit over time, and the condition may be a sign of underlying voice injuries conditions that may require treatment.
In fact, negative opinions about vocal fry may be more related to sexism than a genuine health concern, as complaints about vocal fry are more often directed toward women than men, though some people genuinely find the sound of it to be discomforting.
Fans previously noted her unusually high voice when she presented an award in March at the Oscars with her Wicked costar Cynthia Erivo. Fans speculated at the time that she was still doing her Galinda voice from their film
The 30-year-old singer and actress appeared on Podcrushed with Penn Badgley when she went from a natural-sounding low, husky voice to the more recent high-pitched voice
In March, Ariana was seen on stage at the Academy Awards with her Wicked costar Cynthia Erivo when she surprised her fans and viewers with her higher-pitched voice, which appears to be similar to the one she uses when playing Galinda.
‘That is NOT how she usually sounds!’ said one fan on Instagram, while another wondered, ‘What happened to her voice?’
‘Someone needs to make Ariana Grande stop speaking in her Glinda voice. It’s too soon for another Austin Butler situation,’ joked another user.
Ariana’s latest defensive post also gives credence to fan theories that the pitched-up voice is similar to the one she used while filming the Wicked.
During her recent Podcrushed appearance, Ariana was speaking about her growth as a singer and her songwriting journey while delving into her latest album, Eternal Sunshine, when the surprise vocal change happened.
‘I went to the studio the day after the Met and I stayed for like 10 days and I was literally living there and I felt like I woke up today and I felt like Austin Powers being unfrozen,’ Ariana laughed, with Penn and his co-hosts, Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari, chuckling along.
‘That’s how I felt,’ she continued. ‘I was like “what happened.”‘
‘But yeah I,’ she says, as her voice then gets dramatically higher and breathier, as she composes herself and continues.
‘I would like to do a deluxe [album] at some point,’ she says.
And fans couldn’t believe the shift, taking to social media to express their concern – and disbelief.
‘As a singer, she might be trying to talk in a less damaging part of her voice,’ one user speculated.
‘Speaking higher like that without the vocal fry she had at the beginning is better for your voice, especially when your voice is fatigued,’ one person speculated.
The Wicked star was talking about her growth as a singer and her songwriting journey while speaking about her album, Eternal Sunshine, when she shifted to a tone higher
Ariana and Penn pictured on the set of her new music video, The Boy Is Mine
Many people theorized her change in voice may be because she is still using the voice she used while playing Glinda in Wicked, which she seemed to confirm; pictured with Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba
Some fans speculated she was trying to avoid using vocal fry, though it is likely a myth that vocal fry can damage a person’s voice
Another questioned: ‘Ariana Grande is mad scary bc (because) why did she do a voice change like it was nothing in the middle of that interview?’
‘People must be delusional cuz it’s clear her [Glinda] voice is keeping her in the high register,’ someone else commented.
They continued: ‘She even explained in the interview how she was operatically trained for months. She had to speak this way for over a year, that’s hard to just drop. Remember Austin Butler?’
Ariana responded to the comments, saying she has ‘always’ changed her voice, depending on how much singing she is doing at that moment.