Meanwhile, fans have been in a frenzy over rumors that Grande was paid $15 million to star as Glinda the Good Witch in the two-part movie musical, while Erivo, 37, only got $1 million to play Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.

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,'” Schwartz tells The Times. In fact, Grande was so protective of Glinda she didn’t even want to add what became a show-stopping dance break finale to the number.

It’s also probably the worst pop song that’s ever touched my ears – but who cares! It’s for the plot. For the lore. Here’s the story of how Ariana Grande foreshadowed her Glinda role in Wicked with Popular Song all the way back in 2012. ariana grande sampling ‘popular’ from ‘wicked’ for her song popular song, 2013 pic.twitter.com/2J5DVmvOdC