Ariana Grande made all kinds of news on Thursday night (June 6) when she visited The Tonight Show to perform her new single, “The Boy Is Mine,” and have a chat with host Jimmy Fallon about her role in the two-part movie adaptation of Wicked. Wearing a Jackie O.-style black mini-dress with white buttons down the front and matching white heels, the singer took the stage to deafening cheers from the studio audience.
The pair reminisced about the time Grande did Fallon a “solid” during COVID when she appeared in a Zoom interview in 2021, at which point she revealed she already knew she’d gotten her dream role. “But I couldn’t tell you yet,” Grande said when Fallon noted that the singer had been cast in director Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the musical in the role of Glinda the Good.
“This was the sweetest thing ever, because Jimmy was being such an amazing friend to me,” Grande said when Fallon recalled that he asked her at the time if she might return to acting. “He knew about my audition process that I was going through when we were filming our music video for [“It Was A…] ‘Masked Christmas,‘ but he knew that I was going through this audition process and I couldn’t tell anyone that I had the role yet. I was like sworn to secrecy,” Grande said.
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The singer described getting the call about the role two days before the Zoom interview and because she was sworn to secrecy, said she was “trying to subliminally tell you [Fallon] through the screen that I got it.” She remembered wearing a big pink sparkly choker that she thought might tip Fallon off.
“I knew it in my head, I kept the secret as well,” Fallon laughed before pulling out a 2011 tweet from Grande in which she wrote, “Loved seeing Wicked again… amazing production! Made me realize again how badly I want to 2 play Glinda at some point in my life! #DreamRole.” Grande will star alongside Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba in the film that will be released in two parts, with the first part due on Nov. 27.
“To share it with people and to feel the love that we’ve received has been really overwhelming,” Grande said. The singer also described how she wasn’t intending to record her new album, Eternal Sunshine, until after she wrapped Wicked. But when the Hollywood strike shuttered production last year she went home to see her family and booked a week in the studio with producer Max Martin, during which they recorded five of the album’s songs.
Grande also confirmed that the video for “The Boy Is Mine” will feature Gossip Girl actor Penn Badgley, who fans suspected might appear in the clip after Grande teased the video with a TikTok of the You star awkwardly dancing to the song’s chorus; the video is slated to debut on Friday morning (June 7).
“The video stars Penn Badgley, who I’ve been a fan of my entire life,” said Grande. “It was so amazing to work with him. Super honored to work with him.”
Grande returned later to perform “The Boy Is Mine” backed by the Roots on a rooftop set while wearing a short black dress and fabric mask with cat ears.
Watch Grande talk Wicked and perform “The Boy Is Mine” on The Tonight Show below.