Ariana Grande rejected a hip-hop reworking of ‘Wicked’ hit ‘Popular’
"I want to be Glinda, not Ariana Grande playing Glinda"
by Emma Wilkes · NMEAriana Grande shot down the idea of reworking the Wicked song ‘Popular’ into a hip-hop number.
The idea was floated by composer Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the music for the original Broadway show. However, Grande rejected the idea because it felt too close to what she does in music.
Schwartz recalled the exchange in an oral history of the film for the Los Angeles Times. “In the spirit of being open to new things for the movie, my music team and I thought, let’s refresh the rhythm. Let’s, maybe, I don’t know, hip-hop it up a little bit. Ariana said, ‘Absolutely not, don’t do it. I want to be Glinda, not Ariana Grande playing Glinda’.”
She did agree, however, to another change he suggested. “I had this idea for a new vocal ending. Ariana was a little hesitant about it, but I told her that if I had thought of it for the original show, this is how it would have been. Once she was reassured that this new bit of music was coming out of character, she was on board.”
Cinematographer Alice Brooks also lifted the lid on how they shot the number.
“‘Popular’ is the first song we shot. The challenge was that we wanted this huge, grand number, but we’re in this very tight, intimate dorm room — our smallest set by far,” she said. “One night, I woke up suddenly and thought, the sun needs to always rise for Glinda ‘and set for Elphaba. So ‘Defying Gravity’ is one long sunset, and ‘Popular’ is one long sunrise. We put a skylight in the dorm’s dome ceiling so the sun could be our spotlight.”
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NME awarded it four stars and said the “hit musical makes a gravity-defying leap to the big screen”.
“Funny, colourful and full of empathy for outsiders, this film really is the Shiz,” it added.
In the run-up to the film’s release, people believed Wicked being released in the US the same weekend as Gladiator 2 – dubbed Glicked – could have a similar impact to last year’s Barbenheimer phenomenon.
The release hasn’t had the same impact as last year’s Barbenheimer phenomenon, but it has breathed new life into the box office with huge takings.
Jon M. Chu’s film debuted with $114million (£90.6million) domestically and $164.2million (£130.5million) globally for Universal Pictures, according to studio estimates (via The Guardian) yesterday (November 24).
Gladiator 2 meanwhile, opened with $55.5million (£44.1million) domestically and it added $50.5million (£40.1million) internationally.