Here's why Ariana Grande refused to put a spin on 'Wicked' song 'Popular'

Ariana Grande didn’t want to temper with Wicked’s beloved original song Popular.

Grande rejected the idea of making a hip hop rendition of Popular, which was suggested by composer Stephen Schwartz, who also wrote the music for the original Broadway musical.

Schwartz told Los Angeles Times: “In the spirit of being open to new things for the movie, my music team and I thought, let’s refresh the rhythm. Let’s, maybe, I don’t know, hip-hop it up a little bit. Ariana said, ‘Absolutely not, don’t do it. I want to be Glinda, not Ariana Grande playing Glinda’.”

However, the Side to Side hitmaker agreed to another change suggested by the composer, once she was sure the change was aligned with Glinda’s character.

She said: “I had this idea for a new vocal ending. Ariana was a little hesitant about it, but I told her that if I had thought of it for the original show, this is how it would have been. Once she was reassured that this new bit of music was coming out of character, she was on board.”

Cinematographer Alice Brooks also shed light on the making of Popular and Defying Gravity, saying, “‘Popular’ is the first song we shot. The challenge was that we wanted this huge, grand number, but we’re in this very tight, intimate dorm room — our smallest set by far.”

“One night, I woke up suddenly and thought, the sun needs to always rise for Glinda ‘and set for Elphaba. So ‘Defying Gravity’ is one long sunset, and ‘Popular’ is one long sunrise. We put a skylight in the dorm’s dome ceiling so the sun could be our spotlight.”

Jon M. Chu’s Wicked part one, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo is a booming success. It debuted with $114million domestically and $164.2million globally for Universal Pictures, per The Guardian.