Ariana Grande reveals emotional reason she’s using her ‘birth name’ again

Ariana Grande has revealed why she decided to use her 'birth name' in the Wicked credits.

Fans of the singer and actress known as Ariana Grande have long awaited the release of Wicked in cinemas, in which she stars as Glinda the Good Witch of the North.

When the film landed in cinemas in November, eagle-eyed fans noticed something totally unrelated in the credits of the film - that Grande had a slightly different name.

The star's name read 'Ariana Grande-Butera', which is her legal name and is a combination of her mother and father’s surnames.

However, the 'True Story' singer decided to make a change for the movie. She explained the switch on The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast Awards Chatter which aired on Monday (3 February).

“Because that is my full name,” she explained about honouring her roots. “It’s my birth name, and that was my name when I first saw Wicked when I was a young girl,”.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo performing 'Popular' during Wicked (Universal)

The Oscar nominee added: “And I feel like this experience was such a homecoming to myself, my young me, that maybe little pieces of her got lost along the way.

“It felt like a homecoming to her, so this felt like a beautiful celebration of that homecoming and a way of including my full me.”

The singer, who mostly uses her mother’s surname, fell out of touch with her dad, Ed Butera, in 2013. Her parents split when she was around eight.

When she later skyrocketed into the spotlight as a child star on Nickelodeon's Victorious, going on to bag a further role in its spin-off series Sam and Cat, she simply went by the moniker Ariana Grande. All of her albums and singles have been released under this name, including her acclaimed 2024 album Eternal Sunshine.

Ariana Grande uses her 'birth name' in the Wicked credits (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for National Board of Review)

Speaking to Seventeen Magazine in 2014 about their estrangement, she described her connection to her father as complicated.

She said at the time: "It’s private… It took me so long to be OK with it. So much of me comes from my father, and for so long, I didn’t like that about myself."

The Sweetener chart-topper and R.E.M. Beauty founder added: "I had to accept that it’s OK not to get along with somebody and still love them."

However, in more recent years the pair seem to have reconnected. Grande invited both of her parents along to the 62nd Grammy Awards back in 2020 and her dad was also present at her wedding to Dalton Gomez in 2021.