What a week Ariana Grande has had. The 22-year-old singer hosted Saturday Night Live last weekend in an appearance that was well received by viewers. Ariana poked fun at herself in her SNL opening monologue, singing a song about what her next big scandal may be. Grande has managed to stay scandal free and joked that she felt a need for something more serious than the uproar caused by her licking a doughnut.
Ariana got great feedback from the live SNL audience for both her skits and her singing. Talk about the show has largely been about her impressions, musical and otherwise. The SNL cast presented another of their skits that parodied Family Feud, with Kenan Thompson spoofing Steve Harvey. Some of the competitors on the SNL version of the game show this weekend were Tilda Swinton (Kate McKinnon), Javier Bardem (Beck Bennett), Idris Elba (Jay Pharoah), Quentin Tarantino (Taran Killam), Martin Scorsese (Jon Rudnitsky), and Jennifer Lawrence (Ariana Grande). Ariana nailed her impression of “regular person” JLaw. Check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl9ZS9YgTD4
Then there was the skit in which Ariana and the SNL cast showed what might happen on a troubled day at music and video streaming service Tidal. Grande plays timid intern Chloe, who saves the day as she picks up and fills the dead air experienced when various artist tracks go down. She impersonates Britney Spears, Shakira, Rihanna, Celine Dion, and Whitney Houston. Ariana told the Today Show that, “When I met Celine, she told me, she was like, ‘When I saw you, I peed!’” Here’s Grande’s performance in the SNL Tidal skit, in case you haven’t seen it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7uBph38kXo
Ariana also performed her new song, Dangerous Woman , after Larry David botched her name.
As impressive as the Ariana Grande we saw on SNL last weekend was, there was more that we didn’t get to see, skits that were “cut for time.” There were two. One allowed Ariana to showcase her ability to impersonate legendary singers, and the other poked fun at those who are completely clueless about March Madness.
Ariana stars as none other than Judy Garland in the SNL skit titled Cinema Channel. The premise of the skit is that in Roger Corman got Judy Garland to star in a self-funded B-movie about space, over which he gave her complete creative control. The movie was titled Up We Go In Our Fantastic Rocket. Take a look. Grande nails yet another impression.
And the second Ariana Grande skit that was cut was a March Madness skit. Grande is going to have a March Madness party and invites some friends from work. They obviously have no idea what March Madness is and respond to Ariana with crazy comments and questions. Here you go.
Grande has released two studio albums — Yours Truly in 2013 and My Everything in 2014. Both albums went to number one on the Billboard charts. The lead single from Yours Truly was a song titled “The Way ,” which reached the top ten on Billboard ‘s Hot 100. Her vocal range on this debut studio album was compared to Mariah Carey. Four songs from Ariana’s My Everything made it to the top ten. They spent a combined 34 consecutive weeks in the top ten. Grande had more top ten singles in 2014 than any other artist.
Ariana Grande has won a total of 30 awards and has been nominated for 85. Among her wins are an American Music Award for Best New Artist in 2013 and another American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist in 2015.
Dangerous Woman will be Ariana’s third studio album and is scheduled for release in May. She performed two tracks from that album on last week’s SNL – “ Dangerous Woman,” which you can view near the top of the page, and “Be Alright,” which is being released as a promotional single today. Check out her SNL performance of “Be Alright” below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D92jE9moOp4
[Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images]
