Ariana Grande reveals the personal significance behind using her full birth name, Ariana Grande-Butera, in ‘Wicked’ credits.

Ariana Grande has revealed the heartfelt reason behind her decision to use her “birth name” in the credits of the highly anticipated film adaptation of Wicked, which has garnered multiple Oscar nominations for this year.

The credits for the film, in which Grande stars, read “Ariana Grande-Butera,” her legal name – a combination of her mother and father’s surnames.

In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast Awards Chatter, Grande explained the significance of the name change.

“Because that is my full name,” she explained, highlighting the importance of acknowledging her childhood and honouring her roots.

The “Thank U, Next” singer elaborated, “It’s my birth name, and that was my name when I first saw Wicked when I was a young girl. 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,” she added, painting a picture of personal growth and self-discovery.

Ariana Grande typically uses only her mother’s surname for her projects, mainly due to strained relations with her father, Ed Butera, since 2013. This makes her decision to include his surname in the Wicked credits all the more poignant, suggesting a step towards embracing her complete identity.