Ariana Grande Explains Why She Used Her Full Name In Wicked Credits, And Its Sweet

LOADINGERROR LOADINGIt seems Ariana Grande wanted to pay homage to Ariana pequeña.During a recent interview, the “Thank U, Next” singer explained to Australian radio station Hit 104.7 Canberra why she decided to use her full legal name — Ariana Grande-Butera — in the credits for her upcoming film, “Wicked,” in which she’ll play “good witch” Glinda.“Technically, it’s my little girl name!” she explained.

“It’s little Ari’s name.”“I just feel like this experience was such a homecoming for me,” she continued.“I feel like I came home to myself in a lot of ways through what I learned from Glinda, from Elphaba.”Advertisement Cynthia Erivo (who plays Elphaba in “Wicked”) and Ariana Grande (who plays Glinda) pose on the red carpet ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in July.Matthew Stockman via Getty ImagesShe then added a very cute detail.“That was my name when I went to see [“Wicked” the play] when I was 10 years old.

It felt like a really lovely way of honoring that.It felt really full circle.

It just felt like something I wanted to do.”The sentiment is very sweet, although Grande’s romantic relationship with her “Wicked” co-star Ethan Slater has left some fans bitter.Last summer, Grande divorced her husband after two years of marriage and Slater separated from his high school sweetheart, with whom he’d been married for five years.Advertisement Sources close to Slater and Grande told People that the two didn’t begin dating until they were both officially single, but Slater’s ex, Lilly Jay, suggested otherwise to Page Six last July.Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater at a Florida Panthers hockey game in June.Elsa via Getty ImagesIn an interview with Vanity Fair this month, Grande “dispute[d] specific allegations” about her relationship with Slater, but kept things relatively vague — saying only that “there couldn’t be a less accurate depiction” of Slater than the cheating ...