Ariana Grande stuns ‘SNL’ viewers with her spot-on impressions of Britney Spears, Celine Dion and more
Ariana Grande knows her fans get a kick out of her spot-on impressions of other singers, so she made sure to include a bunch of them when she hosted “Saturday Night Live” on Oct 12.
The 31 year-old “Wicked” star, who last hosted the legendary sketch comedy series in 2016, made up for lost time on Saturday’s episode, whipping out some of her best-loved imitations of fellow pop stars including Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Gwen Stefani and Celine Dion.
(Don’t worry, Grande even worked in her zany Jennifer Coolidge impression in a hilarious sketch with cast member Chloe Fineman.)
The former high-school theater kid got the ball rolling during her opening monologue. Grande at first vowed to stay “low-key” all night, claiming she wouldn’t sing during the episode or do any of her celebrity impressions.
“I just want to make one thing clear. I am just hosting. No, I’m not going to make this about me. I’m just going to have fun, take it easy, and, yeah, just going to keep it low-key,” she said.
A beat later, Grande accepted a microphone from off-camera to launch into an original song about her plans to resist the temptation to act like a “diva.”
The song, naturally, showcased Grande’s impressive vocal range despite her promise to not sing her “favorite notes” — “not C, D, B, A or G.”
It also included a 1-2-3 punch of Grande’s impressions: a few Spears-style “Ooh baby babies,” a quick riff on Cyrus and a Stefani spoof set to the tune of No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak.”
The opener then took a show-stopping turn as Grande received a Broadway-worthy lift, courtesy of a background dancer, and was also joined onstage by Bowen Yang in full Glinda drag.
Audience members in Studio 8H weren’t the only ones to eat up Grande’s hamminess. Viewers at home were also knocked out by her musical monologue.
“She actually did what had to be done. She went from singing, to acting, to the humor, to the dancing. She is one of a kind. No one does it like her,” one viewer wrote alongside a clip from Grande’s monologue posted on the official “SNL” Instagram account.
“Ariana is really made for SNL. She has an amazing ability to impersonate other artists,” a third viewer wrote on YouTube.
Later in the episode, Grande worked in her impression of Celine Dion in a sketch poking fun at the Canadian chanteuse’s recent “Sunday Night Football” promos.
Wearing her hair in a bun (actually a wig) and speaking in a faux Quebec accent, Grande’s Dion reveals that she’s now helping to promote the UFC’s gory mixed martial arts fights.
“Show me, go for it!” Grande’s Dion screams before launching into a bloodlust-filled parody of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” set to footage of the fighters’ bloody, bone-breaking matches.
Once again, viewers got a kick out of Grande’s spot-on impression of Dion.
“When it comes to do a Celine Dion impression, no one is doing it better than Ariana Grande but this time she surpassed herself… these vocals wow,” one viewer wrote on YouTube.
“This is actually amazing lol the accent the singing,” gushed another.
