Ariana Grande is going back to the basics when it comes to her name.
The singer and actress, 31, opted to exchange her stage name with her full name “Ariana Grande-Butera” in the credits of her new movie Wicked, according to E! News.
Her full name incorporates both her mother’s name, Joan Grande, and her father, Ed Butera’s name. Grande’s father, a graphic designer, split from her mother, Joan, when the pop superstar was 8.
The change comes after the “We Can’t Be Friends” singer has reconnected with her estranged father in recent years after the pair fell out of touch in 2013.
The following year, Grande described the experience as “one of the hardest things” she’d ever had to deal with.
“It’s private … It took me so long to be okay with it,” she explained in a 2014 cover interview with Seventeen magazine. “So much of me comes from my father, and for so long, I didn’t like that about myself. I had to accept that it’s okay not to get along with somebody and still love them.”
She briefly touched on her relationship with her father in her hit 2018 song “Thank U, Next,” in which she sang “One day I’ll walk down the aisle/ holding hands with my mama/ I’ll be thanking my dad ’cause she grew from the drama.”
Grande has also documented them mending their relationship on social media, sharing a throwback photo to him in 2017, writing, “I love you.” She also posted a black-and-white picture of herself FaceTiming with him during Christmas in 2018.
The following year, the singer shared a photo of her and her father posing behind-the-scenes of one of her concerts on her Instagram Story, along with the caption: “Foreva.”
Grande even changed the lyrics to the song during the 2020 Grammy’s to “I’ll be thanking my dad ’cause he’s really awesome,” per Elle Magazine.
Meanwhile, her name in the Wicked credits isn’t the only change for the Nickelodeon alum, who earlier this year addressed her vocal changes for her role of playing Glinda in the film, which she stars in alongside singer and actress Cynthia Erivo, boyfriend Ethan Slater and a host of other famous faces.
In an interview for the Shut Up Evan podcast with Evan Ross Katz on July 9, Ariana said that her voice changing is “a normal thing people do, especially if you have a large range.”
“I did just spend a long time playing a character every single day,” she explained. “[I trained] my voice to do different things for a long time before leaving for London and before any of this; muscle memory is a real thing.”
In response to fans who initially teased her about the vocal change, the songstress also responded: “I intentionally change my vocal placement (high / low) often depending on how much singing I’m doing 😭.”
Wicked: Part One hits cinemas on November 22, 2024. The sequel, Wicked Part Two, is set to be released in November 2025.
Buy PEOPLE’s Wicked special edition here.
Source: People
