First it was the Wheel of Musical Impressions. Then it was the Musical Genre Challenge. Then, the Mixtape Medley. But when Ariana Grande made her latest late night chat show appearance, host Jimmy Kimmel challenged the “Wicked” star with her most revealing contest yet: “Wing It and Sing It” — where stars stun audiences by singing a song which they’ve never heard the music or seen the lyrics before.
This concept might imbue a shed load of stage fright into some Music Man readers. But Ariana has already proved herself to be a master of musical improv through her three previous, multi-million-times-viewed chat show clips, and the star shows no fear in going into her new track and challenge completely blind!
It works like this: a pianist plays a backing track live, while Ariana is faced with a board of lyric cards, sung line by line with show host Jimmy dropping the cards to the floor to reveal the next lyric just seconds before Ariana has to sing it.
The first line makes her laugh, “I’m a strong successful woman.” But as the unlikely and hilarious lyrics (“I’m a human baby carrot, I’m a lady Pikachu”) reveal themselves, Ariana masters them in her high-pitched, crystalline voice, despite doubling over in laughter countless times.
Long-term Ariana fans will be stunned at the incredible change in the 31-year-old singer’s voice; exponential since training for her lead role in the 2024 musical “Wicked” and streaming with angelic clarity. Ari completely channels Glinda in this challenge whether intentionally or not, floating in her high notes while tapping into some soulful, gospel tones.
Music isn’t all about appearances. But in A-list pop stars turned movie queens, it kinda is. It isn’t just Ariana’s new bleached-out hair and eyebrows that’ve got fans in a frenzy — Arianators have been worried over their idol’s weight loss since debuting her new look last year. And this clip just brings it all to the forefront.
Character acting is one thing — we all saw Christian Bale’s huge weight loss for his role in 2004’s “The Machinist.” But Ariana’s night-and-day transformation, matched with Wing It & Sing It song lyrics detailing how small she is (“For a bed I use a sock, I fall into a toaster, I’m the bird in a cuckoo clock”) is certainly a tad concerning. Ariana has always been enviably tiny, but it’s almost as if Jimmy is trolling her on her recent health rumors.