She’ll show you what shoes to wear, how to fix your hair — and while she’s at it, Ariana Grande will also tell you the correct lyrics to her character Glinda’s signature song in Wicked.
Shortly after the fast-approaching musical film shared extended looks at a few of its featured songs on Instagram Wednesday (Nov. 13), the 31-year-old pop star noticed that one of the lyrics to “Popular” was apparently misprinted on the video and quickly pointed out the mistake in the comments. In the clip, the Wicked team had the line in question written as, “I’ll teach you the proper poise when you talk to boys.”
But as Grande corrected: “it’s ‘ploys’ !!!!!! i love you @wickedmovie 🥲🥹”
The Universal music department also confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that “proper ploys” is the phrase printed in the Wicked sheet music, as personally approved by the original Broadway musical’s composer Stephan Schwartz. At press time, the video with the incorrect version is still live on Wicked‘s socials.
As evidenced by her devotion to the correct lyrics, the “We Can’t Be Friends” singer has been open about how seriously she takes her role in Wicked. Grande trained for months leading up to her very first audition for Glinda in 2021, and during a recent panel at a screening of the movie in Hollywood, she joked that she “might have ended up in an insane asylum” if the opportunity had gone to someone else (though she knew the part “was in the most loving hands” regardless).
On the same day Wicked shared the “Popular” snippet, fans also got a taste of Cynthia Erivo’s rendition of character Elphaba’s knockout number “The Wizard & I.” As sampled in both videos, the two leading ladies sang live vocals on the set of the the Wicked films, the first of which arrives in theaters Nov. 22.
See the “Popular” lyric video — and look out for Grande’s comment — below.
