Wicked fans only just noticing major ‘mistake’ in one song and people are seriously divided

Wicked fans are debating whether or not a ‘scratch’ was intentionally left in a song from the movie’s soundtrack, with some claiming they ‘can’t stand’ listening to it anymore.

Last November, the first part of Jon M. Chu’s seminal Wicked adaptation, starring Cynthia Erivo, 38, and Ariana Grande, 31, premiered in cinemas.

The fantasy film adapts the first act of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's award-winning stage musical, which in turn draws inspiration from Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the East, and of course, the Oz books series.

Wicked follows Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West (played by Erivo), and her unlikely friendship with Galinda Upland (Grande), who is set to become Glinda the Good.

One poignant scene in the movie musical sees Glinda cementing her friendship with Elphaba by promising to make her popular.

She believes that if she can make her new-found friend conform to established ideas of beauty, she will become more liked by her peers at Shiz University.

This heartfelt scene is captured through a comedic song aptly named ‘Popular’, and sees Ariana yodelling the title word, an ode to original Glinda actress Kristin Chenoweth, 56.

However, some people have expressed disappointment over Ariana’s version of the song, claiming they can’t help but hear a mistake ‘every single time’ they listen.

Comments came after a musician named Nicki Tedesco shared a clip of voice coach Tim Welch discussing the song in his recent YouTube video, titled ‘Let’s CELEBRATE & COMPARE ‘Popular’-WICKED: Ariana Grande and Kristin Chenoweth’.

The snippet sees the expert criticising editing software for impacting Ariana’s vocals during the song.

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

“Wait, there was something fishy in the jump up to ‘Popular’,” he began.

“It sounded like somebody messed up on the pitch-correcting and left a little scratchy digital artefact in there.”

After rewinding and playing the moment again, Tim called the peculiar sound a ‘scratch’ before claiming Ariana didn’t make the sound herself.

“Her chords don’t make that sound… they didn’t clean up that spot—her sound engineer missed that moment,” he explained.

“There is a little catch. That’s the sound that your pitch-correcting software makes when it doesn’t quite grab the note that it’s trying to correct accurately.”

Tim then branded the noise as an example of ‘bad sound engineering’, before praising the ‘warm quality’ Ariana brought to her voice in the musical film.

Nicki has shared Tim’s clip with her 3,497 Instagram followers, adding: “Thoughts on pitch correction? I’ve started veering in the opposite direction and trying to be ok with leaving my slightly flat notes because it’s NATURAL for me and I’m not a robot (sadly..) maybe someday.

“I still use it! But I’m not as mad about not being ‘perfect’.”

Her query has seen hundreds of Instagram users flocking to the comments to have their say, with some claiming the so-called scratch was ‘intentional’.

“Imagine saying that an intended yodel was an editing error,” one responded.

A second echoed: “You’re wrong. From someone who has tuned vocals for 20 years using pretty much every tuning software out, that is not what a tuning transition sounds like… that’s a yodel or as others said when your voice passes passagio (switch from full to falsetto).”

“The whole movie and soundtrack is polished with pitch correction software from Ariana, to Cynthia and everyone in between,” replied a third.

Others have been praising Tim for catching the blip, with another Instagram user typing: “Yes I have heard this every single time I hear the song and I’m surprised nobody else comments on it.

Some people believe the 'scratch' in the vocals was intentional (Universal)

“Same with when she does the aggressive 'RIGHT' the book slam is off beat and randomly pauses the sound.”

Someone else penned: “No need to replay I hear it every time I listen to the song. It's like designing a flawless gown then spilling wine down the front.”

“So 11 instead of 12 Oscars?,” joked a third user.

“Yeah, I can't stand every time I hear It too,” wrote someone else.

Tyla has reached out to Universal for comment.

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