Ariana Grande Explains Why She Chooses to Change Her Voice & Addresses Haters Scrutinizing It

The 31-year-old singer and actress was recently asked about why haters believe she changes up her voice as she appeared on the Smartless podcast.

“The thing that I do that perplexes people so much — and it’s just so funny because if you’re a person who uses their voice, you know about this, is if I have a long day of press or if I have to sing, I’ll place [my voice] a little higher,” she told hosts American actors Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Canadian actor Will Arnett.

“I’ll change my vocal placement to kind of preserve,” Grande said.

“But that is just something that’s healthy for the voice. It’s just basically pitching your voice up a tiny bit,” she added. “It’s just a normal thing for vocalists. But people are like, ‘That’s not her natural voice.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, it is actually, but it’s just a little higher. All of it is natural.'”

She said, “It’s so funny because I’ve talked about it a zillion times, and people are still like, ‘Where’s your real voice?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, they all are.'”

This is not the first time Grande — who was recently nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Glinda in Wicked — has had to defend the way she speaks from time to time.

In June 2024, a snippet of her voice changing went viral from her interview on actor Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast.

In the video, Grande goes from a lower-pitched voice and suddenly corrects herself to speak in a higher-pitched voice, sparking comments on TikTok like one that read, “I don’t even know what her real voice sounds like anymore.”

The TikTok, which has amassed millions of views, made its way to Grande herself — who took to the comment section to respond to concern about her voice change.

“habit (speaking like this for two years) and also vocal health 🙂 🍵,” she wrote. “i intentionally change my vocal placement (high / low) often depending on how much singing i’m doing 😭 i’ve always done this BYE.”