Ariana Grande at the Oscars: What Most People Get Wrong

You know that feeling when you're watching a red carpet and someone walks out looking like they just floated off a literal cloud? That was basically the vibe when Ariana Grande hit the 96th Academy Awards. Honestly, it had been a minute. Four years, to be exact. Since the 2020 Grammys, she’d been mostly staying under the radar, deep in the trenches of filming Wicked in London. So, when Ariana Grande at the Oscars finally became a reality in March 2024, the internet predictably lost its collective mind.

But here’s the thing. A lot of people saw that massive, pink Giambattista Valli gown and just thought, "Oh, she’s doing the pop star thing again." It was actually way deeper than that. This wasn't just a dress; it was a full-on psychological shift.

The Glinda Method: More Than Just a Pink Dress

If you’ve been following her lately, you've noticed the "new" Ari. People were genuinely baffled by her voice during the telecast. She was presenting Best Original Score with her Wicked sister, Cynthia Erivo, and her speaking register was... different. Higher. More precise. Almost trans-Atlantic?

She later cleared this up on the Zach Sang Show, explaining that she had to "deconstruct" her entire being to play Glinda the Good Witch. We’re talking years of vocal training to erase the "pop star Ari" habits. When she stood on that Oscar stage, she wasn't just there as a singer. She was there as an actor who had lived in Oz for two years.

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The dress reflected that. It was custom Giambattista Valli Haute Couture. A pink, ruched column gown swallowed up by an absurdly large, pillowy cape. Some critics said she looked like a loofah. Others said she looked like a duvet cover. But if you look at the original 1939 Wizard of Oz, it was a direct homage to the bubble Glinda travels in. It was "method dressing" before the Wicked press tour had even officially started.

The 2025 Shift: From Presenter to Nominee

Fast forward a year. The 97th Oscars in 2025 were a whole different ballgame. This time, she wasn't just presenting; she was a Best Supporting Actress nominee. Talk about a glow-up. While she eventually lost the trophy to Zoe Saldaña (who was a powerhouse in Emilia Pérez), the nomination itself was a massive middle finger to anyone who thought she couldn't transition from Nickelodeon to the Academy.

Her 2025 look was arguably even more daring. She traded the "loofah" for a Schiaparelli SS25 Couture piece. It was still pink—because, obviously—but it was structured, sculptural, and had this weirdly beautiful ballet-meets-alien aesthetic.

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What Actually Happened with the "New Voice"?

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. The voice. When she spoke at the podium in 2024, social media went into a frenzy. "Why does she sound like a different person?" basically trended for 48 hours.

The reality is pretty technical.

1. Muscle Memory: When you spend 15 hours a day for two years speaking in a specific placement for a film, your vocal folds literally adjust.
2. Vocal Health: Ariana has always been a "vocal nerd." The higher, lighter placement is actually much healthier for her singing voice while she's performing a demanding role.
3. Character Immersion: She’s admitted she finds it hard to "turn off" Glinda. It’s not a fake accent; it’s a lingering habit from an intense job.

It’s kinda fascinating how much we demand celebrities stay exactly the same. We want the 2014 "Problem" ponytail forever, but she's in her thirties now. She's allowed to evolve.

The "Wicked" Impact on the Academy

We can't talk about Ariana Grande at the Oscars without mentioning the sheer scale of Wicked. In 2025, the film bagged 10 nominations. That’s insane for a musical. It tied with The Brutalist for the second-most nominations of the night.

Seeing her and Cynthia Erivo together on that stage—Cynthia in her "Elphaba green" Louis Vuitton and Ari in her pink—felt like a cultural shift. They weren't just two costars; they were a unit. Their opening performance in 2025, a medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Defying Gravity," is already being called one of the best live vocals in Oscar history.

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Breaking Records (Almost)

If Ari had won in 2025, she would have broken a 51-year-old record for the most screentime by a Best Supporting Actress winner. She was on screen for over an hour and 11 minutes. That’s nearly 45% of the movie! Usually, supporting roles are 15–20 minutes. It shows just how much she carried the emotional weight of that first film.

Why This Matters for the Future

Ariana’s transition into a "serious" Oscar-adjacent actor isn't a fluke. She’s already being talked about for the 2026 cycle with Wicked: For Good (the second part). The industry experts at The Playlist and Variety are already betting on her to land another nomination.

She’s proved she can handle the "below-the-line" stuff too. She’s been seen at the Academy Nominees Luncheons wearing archival YSL, playing the game, and showing up for the craft. She’s not just a pop star guest anymore. She’s a peer.

Next steps for fans and fashion nerds:

• Watch the 2024 vs. 2025 red carpet footage back-to-back. You’ll see the confidence shift from a nervous presenter to a seasoned nominee.
• Listen to her 2024 Zach Sang interview. It’s the only place she really gets into the weeds about why her voice changed and the toll the role took on her.
• Track the 2026 predictions. With the second half of the Wicked story focusing more on Glinda’s political rise, her chances of a win are actually higher than they were for Part One.

Essentially, she’s no longer the girl with the cat ears. She’s a legitimate Academy darling who just happens to have 15 number-one hits. It's a weird, brilliant career pivot that most people are still trying to catch up with.