Camila Cabello has praised Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo while sharing a cover from the hit musical.
- READ MORE: Everything we know about ‘Wicked Part Two’
Grande stars as Glinda, the future Good Witch of the North, while Erivo plays green-skinned witch Elphaba in the new film – the first of a two-part adaptation of the hit stage musical.
The Jon M Chu-directed movie, which also stars Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage and Jeff Goldblum, hit cinemas last month and was predicted by experts to be the biggest film of the year.
Although the musical failed to match the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon at box office, it still fared extremely well – raking in $114million (£90.6million) domestically and $164.2million (£130.5million) globally for Universal Pictures on its debut, according to studio estimates.
Critics were quick to praise the vocal performances of its two leads, with Nick Levine noting that “Erivo and Grande are both vocally extraordinary” in NME‘s four-star review of Wicked, adding that “crucially, they also have crackling chemistry punctuated by Erivo’s bursts of intensity and Grande’s slick comic timing”.
Cabello has now joined the scores of fans praising their efforts, and over the weekend shared a black-and-white video singing the film’s signature ballad, ‘Defying Gravity’.
“You were brilliant Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo,” she captioned an Instagram story, which has since recirculated on X/Twitter. “Can’t stop listening and singing.”
camila cabello holding space for the lyrics of defying gravity 🩷💚pic.twitter.com/3QvvPnedf8
— katerina (@karlasmanners) December 1, 2024
Cabello has also featured in a musical flick, having starred in 2021’s Cinderella, which she told Variety was “one of those things that felt like God handcrafted it for me” which was “a little bit terrifying”.
Grande has made similar comments about her role as Glinda over the course of a highly emotionally press tour which has left some fans baffled.
Speaking on the Sentimental Men podcast, Grande talked about her long-term love of the original Wicked stage musical, and said: “I felt a little bit of the initial nervousness or the sort of preconceived notions about what I might be able to deliver or not deliver, or why I would be wrong or whatever.”
She continued, referring to those who criticised her casting: “Going off of ‘Side to Side’, I probably would’ve said the same thing.
“I probably would’ve said, ‘Why the fuck? Kill me. I’ve waited 20 years for this. Kill me.’ I would’ve said that — as a fan from the outside, knowing of only ‘7 Rings’, probably — I’d say, ‘Well, that’s bullshit.’ So, you know, I get it.”
