Ariana Grande tells how Wicked helped her in reigniting her creative spark.
In a new interview with Evan Ross Katz on the Shut Up Evan podcast, the pop star and actress opened up about how filming the musical transformed her both personally and artistically.
“I felt like a genuine spark, like a reconnection and inspiration and something — I mean, maybe I missed it,” said Grande, 32.
“Maybe it’s as simple as I missed it. But I do feel like you have to miss things in order to learn how to become better, you know what I mean? And I think I learned so much. And then also I genuinely wanted to do it. I just felt like I couldn’t not. It was an inspired moment and I had to write an album and I had to do it.”
Grande revealed that even a demanding film schedule couldn’t hold her back creatively. When the Wicked production team informed her of the reshoot plans for January, she embraced the challenge. “I said, great, that’s fine. I’ll finish it before then, or I’ll finish it after,” she recalled.
That drive led to Eternal Sunshine, her acclaimed 2024 album produced with Max Martin and Ilya, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2025 awards.
Grande stars as Glinda Upland in Wicked, the long-awaited film adaptation of the Broadway classic. Reflecting on returning to set after the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, she said, “No, it was there. There was nothing to find… as soon as I got there it was like, done. She was right there, it was wonderful, thank god.”
Wicked premiered in November 2024, with its sequel Wicked: For Good scheduled to release on November 21.
