Ariana Grande changed her name in the Wicked credits for a very sweet reason-Robert Oliver and Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro

Ariana Grande has revealed why she decided to be credited as her full name in Wicked (Picture: Universal Pictures via AP)

Ariana Grande has revealed why she decided to change her name in the closing credits for Wicked.

Adapted from the 2003 stage play of the same name that made Idina Menzel a Broadway legend, the movie adaptation stars Ariana alongside Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey.

Wicked follows the story of Elphaba Thropp (played by Cynthia), a green-skinned and misunderstood young woman from the Land of Oz who enrols at Shiz University.

In the film, which was released yesterday, Ariana takes on the role of Galinda Upland (better known as Glinda the Good Witch), Elphaba’s bubbly and popular roommate.

Ahead of the release, it was revealed that Ariana would be using a different name in the film’s credits, which came as she resumed her acting career after three years away from screens.

Instead of going by the name she’s become famous for in pop music, the Into You singer has gone by the name Ariana Grande-Butera.

Ariana will instead go by Ariana Grande-Butera in the fantasy musical (Picture: Don Arnold/ WireImage)

She told Justin Hill on The Streaming Service podcast: ‘Technically it’s my little girl name, it’s technically little Ari name, but no I just feel like this experience was such a homecoming for me.

‘I feel like I came home to myself in a lot of ways through what I learned from Glinda, from Elphaba, and that was my name when I went to see the show when I was 10 years old and it felt like a really lovely way of honouring that and it felt like really full circle and just something I wanted to do.’

According to reports in E! the change was also influenced by recently reuniting with her father.

Born in the Boca Raton region of Florida, Ariana was raised by her mother Joan Grande and her father Edward Butera – however the pair split when she was eight years old.

The Into You singer had patched things up with her dad Edward by 2020 (Picture: David Crotty/ Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight about the gesture to honour her dad, Ariana said he ‘cried’ when she ‘surprised’ him.

‘I pulled it up on my laptop and I recorded him secretly. I told him I wanted to show him the typography of the credits because he’s a graphic designer, he loves that stuff. It was a big surprise and he cried. It was very emotional,’ she shared.

In 2014, Ariana told Seventeen magazine that she had lost contact with her dad a year earlier, admitting that it took her a long time to adjust to the change.

‘[We lost touch] last year. It took me so long to be okay 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,’ she said.

‘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 okay not to get along with somebody and still love them.’

Their relationship had thankfully been repaired by 2020, with Edward joining his daughter on the 2020 Grammys red carpet – she performed four songs on the night after being nominated in several categories.

Wicked was released in the UK on November 22, with the film expected to make back its $145million (£112million) budget, with pre-sale tickets also hitting record highs.

Ticket site Fandango revealed that pre-sale tickets for Wicked had only been beaten this year by pre-sales for Deadpool & Wolverine, which grossed just over £1billion worldwide.

Ariana and Cynthia Erivo star as Elphaba and Galinda in the adaptation (Picture: Getty)

Despite the excitement, anticipation for an adaptation of the beloved musical did face some backlash, with the film’s poster coming in for heavy criticism upon release.

‘Trailer wasn’t that bad albeit washed out but I hate how downgraded the smirk is in the poster lowkey,’ user Wulfsimmer posted on X.

‘It looks awful. Like a stare at the camera moment from the office. Like a complete mockery of the original smirk / feel of the original poster. Almost like a shot from a cheep early 2000s Disney show,’ Firebison shared on Reddit. 

However, a fan edit of the poster resulted in a scathing attack from Cynthiaherself, who said: ‘This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI [we’re] fighting, equal to people posing the question “Is your ***** green?’

She later backtracked from those comments, admitting to having ‘a human moment’ and ‘wanting to protect little Elphaba.’

The actress and singer admitted that she ‘probably should have called my friends, but it’s fine’.

Wicked is now in cinemas.

This article was originally published on November 4.

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