Here’s Why Ariana Grande Used Her Full Name in the ‘Wicked’ Credits

Ariana Grande is paying homage to her younger self.

In an interview with Australia’s Hit 104.7 Canberra, the “We Can’t Be Friends” singer was asked why she chose to use her “grown-up name,” a.k.a. her birth name Ariana Grande-Butera, in the credits of Wicked. “Technically, it’s my little girl name! It’s technically little Ari’s name,” she responded. “It just feels like this experience was such a homecoming for me. I feel like I came home to myself in a lot of ways, through what I learned from Glinda and Elphaba.”

Grande added, “That was my name when I went to see the show when I was 10 years old, and it felt like a really lovely way of honoring her. It’s a love note to her. It felt really full circle and something I wanted to do.”

Watch the clip here.

Grande and the whole Wicked cast were in the land down under for the Australia film premiere at Sydney’s State Theatre on Sunday (Nov. 3). In Glinda fashion, Grande celebrated her character on the yellow brick carpet in a custom pink Vivienne Westwood dress featuring a tulle skirt, corset-style bodice, a puffed sleeve and starburst embellishments — in homage to the costume Billie Burke wore as Glinda in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz.

Meanwhile, Cynthia Erivo, who portrays Elphaba in the highly anticipated film, wore a black sculptural dress by Louis Vuitton, paired with a choker embellished with a silver lion.

Wicked, the first of the story’s two-part, big screen adaptation, opens in movie theaters on Nov. 22.