Ariana Grande has one of the highest vocal registers in music, and one of her quirks is that her speaking voice continues to get higher and higher throughout the course of the day.
Making an appearance on the SmartLess podcast this week, the Oscar-nominated star of Wicked told hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett that she does this with her voice to preserve it.
“The thing that I do that perplexes people so much – and it’s just so funny because if you’re a person who uses their voice, you know about this – is if I have a long day of press or if I have to sing, I’ll place [my voice] a little higher,” she explained.
“I’ll change my vocal placement to kind of preserve," she continued. "But that is just something that’s healthy for the voice. It’s just basically pitching your voice up a tiny bit. It’s just a normal thing for vocalists. But people are like, ‘That’s not her natural voice.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, it is actually, but it’s just a little higher.’ All of it is natural.”
Grande added that even though she continues to receive flak on social media because of the voice changes, she has repeatedly mentioned why she does it over the years.
“It’s so funny because I’ve talked about it a zillion times, and people are still like, ‘Where’s your real voice?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, they all are,'” she said.
Also in the appearance, Sean Hayes recalled one time when he was invited over to Grande's house for a sleepover.
“I don’t know why I’m remembering this, but one of the cutest, greatest things you ever did — this was around 10 years ago, when we were doing Hairspray Live!" he said. "We were sitting in the makeup trailer and you said to me, ‘Hey, there’s a few of us going to my house after later on tonight, we’re going to get totally wasted and then sleep over, and in the morning my mom’s going to make us pancakes.'”
Hayes, who is now 54, described the invitation as “so sweet,” but told the singer/actress he had to decline because, “Ariana, I am 45 years old!”
Listen to the full episode below.