Ariana Grande has provided insight into her decision to alter her name, following the listing of her birth name in the credits for her latest venture.
The artist is featured as Glinda the Good Witch in the eagerly awaited film adaptation of the celebrated Broadway musical, Wicked.
This cinematic experience is set to be released in theaters globally later this month, with previews and red carpet events having taken place recently.
Grande appears alongside Cynthia Erivo, who recently criticized a fan-modified Wicked poster.
However, the main focus this week has been on Grande’s name appearing in the movie’s credits, which has attracted significant attention.
According to E! News, she will be credited as ‘Ariana Grande-Butera’ due to her renewed connection with her father, Ed Butera.
Grande has elaborated on her name change, describing it as a moment of ‘homecoming’.
“Technically, it’s my little girl name. It’s little Ari’s name. This experience was such a homecoming for me,” the singer shared with Hit Network.
“I feel like I came home to myself in many ways through what I learned from Glinda and from Elphaba.
“That was my name when I was 10 years old, and it seemed like a beautiful way of honoring that. It felt really full circle and something I wanted to do.”
Grande, who was born and raised in Boca Raton, Florida, experienced her parents’ separation when her father, Butera, parted ways with her mother, Joan Grande.
She was only eight years old at the time of their separation.
The ‘One Last Time’ singer has experienced a tumultuous relationship with her father over the years, to the extent that they had ceased communication.
In an interview with Seventeen in 2014, Grande mentioned losing contact with her dad the previous year.
She stated: “Falling out of touch with my dad. It’s private, but it happened last year. It took me so long to be OK with it. The thing that got me there was embracing the fact that I am made up of half my dad, and a lot of my traits come from him.
“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 OK not to get along with somebody and still love them.”
Grande and her father have since mended their relationship, with Butera attending the 2020 Grammy Awards with her and being present at her wedding to her ex-husband Dalton Gomez in 2021.