Wait a minute – have we all been pronouncing Ariana Grande‘s name wrong this whole time? It appears so. The star, whose fourth studio album Sweetener just came out last week, revealed in a recent interview that her last name is actually pronounced differently than the way the general public says it. Well, at least, her beloved grandfather always said it differently. So looks like it’s up for interpretation, depending on the accent you give it. She starts explaining at the :40 mark.
Ari revealed, “My grandpa said Gran-DEE. Gran-DEE was kind of the Americanized version of it, made it more chill,” she explained. “And then my brother was like, we should say Gran-DAY. It’s so fun to like say it. It’s a funny name. I grew up saying Gran-DEE – and I think of [my grandpa] and I wish I said Gran-DEE more.”
The conversation came up when Ariana was asked what she was going to do with her last name once she officially ties the knot with her fiancé Pete Davidson. Turns out, she’s waiting to make all of those big marriage decisions until after her album and tour.
“I have a lot of decisions to make. But I also have an album to drop and a tour to finish before I make any of these decisions. So I’m going to keep my fans the first priority,” the singer added.
In case you didn’t know, Ariana’s full name is currently Ariana Grande-Butera. So who knows if she’ll switch the hyphenation after she gets married, but she is in no rush to decide! She’s hoping to actually just be known as “Ariana” anyway – you know, like how Rihanna and Beyoncé don’t need last names to be recognized.
“I feel like I’d eventually just like to be Ariana – isn’t that sick?”
We vote yes!
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