Ariana Grande’s name looks a bit different in the end credits to Wicked
Ariana Grande has explained why she decided to change her name amid her birth name being listed in the credits for her latest project.
The singer stars as Glinda the Good Witch in the highly anticipated film adaption of the hit Broadway musical Wicked.
The movie is due out in cinemas across the world later this month, with previews and red carpet events taking place recently.
Grande stars alongside Cynthia Erivo – who recently slammed a fan-edited Wicked poster.
The talk this week hasn’t been surrounding that however, with Grande’s name in the credits of the movie hitting the headlines.
According to E! News, Grande will go by ‘Ariana Grande-Butera’ in the movie end credits after reconnecting with her dad, Ed Butera.
Grande has now explained why she decided to change her name, stating it’s a moment of ‘homecoming’.
“Technically, it’s my little girl name. It’s little Ari’s name. This experience was such a homecoming for me,” the singer told Hit Network.
“I feel like I came home to myself in a lot of ways in what I learned from Glinda, from Elphaba.
“That was my name when I was 10 years old and it felt like a really lovely way of honoring that. It felt really full circle and something I wanted to do.”
Grande was born and raised in Boca Raton, Florida, a childhood that saw father Butera separate from Grande’s mother, Joan Grande.
The actor was just eight years old at the time of the split.
The ‘One Last Time’ hitmaker’s relationship with her father has been rocky over the years to say the least, to the point where the pair were not on speaking terms.
Grande told Seventeen in 2014 that she lost contact with her dad the year before.
She said: “Falling out of touch with my dad. It’s private, but it happened last year. It took me so long to be OK with it. The thing that got me there was embracing the fact that I am made up of half my dad, and a lot of my traits come from him.
“So much of me comes from my father, and for so long, I didn’t like that about myself. I had to accept that it’s OK not to get along with somebody and still love them.”
Grande and her dad have since reconciled, with Butera accompanying his daughter to the 2020 Grammy Awards, as well as attending her wedding to her now-ex-husband Dalton Gomez in 2021.