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Ariana Grande is, notably, a superb singer; she has a four-octave vary that she makes use of for R&B ballads, pop bangers, and musical-theater showstoppers. However her stint internet hosting Saturday Evening Reside final night time additionally proved that Grande is sweet at being a dangerous singer. In one of many episode’s first sketches, she performed a bridesmaid performing a parody of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.” The overarching joke was that Grande and her fellow members of the marriage social gathering had been recounting, by way of music, their bachelorette journey, throughout which the bride (performed by Chloe Fineman) connected with a person who was not her fiancé. However essentially the most amusing a part of the sketch was Grande singing purposely off-key, demonstrating the atonality of an newbie together with her flat notes and lackluster supply.
In her opening monologue, Grande instantly lied. “I’m gonna preserve it low-key tonight, I promise,” she mentioned, earlier than crooning “I’m not going to siiiiing” and hitting a excessive notice. The extent of her apparent use of irony shouldn’t be overstated; all through the night time, Grande sang consistently. However she by no means sounded the identical, proof that her celebrated voice is not only a musical instrument but in addition a comedy instrument, one she will modulate for laughs—a trait that places her within the firm of a few of SNL’s biggest forged members.
Her monologue singing was the closest to the Grande we count on—the smooth and clear tone showcased on her albums, like on this 12 months’s Everlasting Sunshine. Throughout the opening, she additionally busted out musical impressions of Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, and Gwen Stefani—a expertise she displayed the earlier time she hosted SNL, in 2016. She utilized this mimicry later within the night time with a spot-on Celine Dion, lovingly mocking Dion’s unusual “Sunday Evening Soccer” promo. Grande’s Dion was, as an alternative, shilling for Final Preventing Championship, and the humor got here from the way in which she transferred the singer’s assured French Canadian enthusiasm to the extraordinarily violent world of combined martial arts.
Mimicry was only one aspect of how Grande manipulated her voice over the course of the episode. In “My Greatest Good friend’s Home” she performed a lady in ponytails who began out by singing a reasonably innocuous tune about how a lot she beloved the odor of her greatest pal’s home. When her pal’s dad turned out to be a serial killer, worry crept into her inflection as she took inventory of all of the indicators she’d missed, together with a frozen head within the fridge and a shaker stuffed with tooth, and Grande used the pristine high quality of her voice to intensify the bizarreness of the state of affairs.
Later she exhibited her higher register in “Castrati,” a sketch set in Renaissance Italy through which she portrayed a castrato named Antonio. Castrati had been a part of a gaggle of males who had been castrated so they may retain their excessive voices, and each time Grande opened her mouth, she launched a ravishing however terrified sound. All of the whereas, Antonio’s mother and father, performed by ex-cast members Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg, pitched to a skeptical prince the advantages of the castration course of—as proved by Antonio’s angelic voice.
It was becoming that this sketch occurred alongside Rudolph and Samberg, two performers who made their SNL mark with musical moments that discovered humor not simply within the punch traces however within the vocal supply. As a member of the Lonely Island, the musical trio that launched him to notoriety, Samberg highlighted how humor can come from emphasizing the precise phrases. On final week’s episode, the Lonely Island returned for “Sushi Glory Gap,” its first new SNL video in six years, and one of many funniest traces was Samberg’s understated and disaffected repetition of the phrase hear us out.
In the meantime, viewers want solely to revisit Rudolph’s traditional “Nationwide Anthem” sketch from 2006 to see how her voice is a software. Again then she performed a neighborhood contest winner who bought to sing the nationwide anthem on the World Collection. Her take was crammed with outlandish riffs and odd pronunciation; Rudolph can clearly belt, however she made each lyric a comedic meal, turning the music right into a deconstruction of what a foul singer thinks good singing is.
Each comedians are additionally aware of how their voices can be utilized to boost humor even when not singing. Take Rudolph’s impression of Kamala Harris, which is predicated not solely on the bodily resemblance between the 2 but in addition on Rudolph’s potential to search out the nuances within the presidential candidate’s cadence. In Samberg’s case, he virtually at all times feels like Andy Samberg, however he makes use of the innate goofiness of his cadence for comedic achieve.
That brings us again to Grande, who clearly understands the intricacies of her voice. Earlier this 12 months, she appeared on the Podcrushed podcast and appeared to alter her talking voice through the interview. In a TikTok remark, she defined how she deliberately shifts her register to maintain her vocal chords wholesome, including that it’s “usually relying on how a lot singing” she is doing. That thoughtfulness was obvious final night time. Each time Grande opened her mouth, a rigorously crafted sound got here out. More often than not it was lovely, however she understood the sketch was typically funnier when she sang terribly.
