Ariana Grande Interviews How Starring in Wicked Re-Lit Her Musical Fire

25 October 2025

Ariana Grande on the Shut Up Evan Podcast. Credit : Evan Ross Katz/Youtube

In a wide-ranging conversation on the “Shut Up Evan” podcast, Ariana Grande revealed that her experience filming the musical film adaptation of Wicked triggered a fresh surge of musical creativity and a deep reconnection to her art.

Grande, who portrays the character Glinda in the movie, said simply “[I] felt like a genuine spark, like a reconnection and inspiration and something I mean, maybe I missed it.” She explained that while acting in the production, she realised how much she had missed the process of making music and that the project ignited a strong drive to return to the studio and write again. She acknowledged that being immersed in that creative world made writing an album feel not optional but necessary. “I had to write an album,” she said.

The timing of this revelation is significant, given Grande’s recent career arc. After immersing herself in the world of Wicked, including filming delays linked to strikes, she told the interviewer that the demands of the project helped refine her priorities. She admitted she was warned about a reshoot schedule in January but insisted that recording her music remained a priority: “Great, that’s fine. I’ll finish it before then, or I’ll finish it after.”

For fans and observers the comments offer a glimpse of how a large-scale acting role can paradoxically sharpen an artist’s focus on their own primary medium. Grande’s testimony suggests that stepping into a character and working in a different form of performance helped her rediscover why she began making music in the first place. The metaphor is clear: by playing Glinda and embracing the world of Wicked, she reconnected with her musical voice.

In broader career-terms, this moment could be seen as a hinge between two eras of Grande’s work her earlier pop-star phase and a potentially more mature, film-informed, creatively renewed chapter. For an artist whose public identity has shifted and expanded over the years, the experience of Wicked appears to have given her a renewed sense of purpose in music.

Moreover, for those interested in the intersection of music and acting, Grande’s remarks underscore how creative detours often perceived as distractions can feed back into an artist’s core practice. Her return to music may be richer, informed by the immersive theatrical process and the discipline of film production.

As the season for Wicked: For Good approaches and Grande's music activities continue, fans are cautiously optimistic about what this reconnection will yield whether a new album sooner than expected, a fresh musical direction, or simply a renewed energy behind her next steps.