The Shady Side Of Ariana Grande

Critics accused Ariana Grande (pronounced Grand-ee, by the way) of appropriating black culture by using African American vernacular English (AAVE) and copious amounts of tanner.  

In a December 2018 sitdown with Billboard, Grande, who was born Ariana Grande-Butera to wealthy Italian American parents, noticeably changed her voice, leading detractors (via The Independent) to accuse her of using a "blaccent." A twitter user included the footage in a montage video comparing Grande's speech from her early fame to now, accompanied by the accusation: "Ariana Grande has fake tanned her skin to the extreme, enlarged her lips, and fakes a stereotyping Blaccent ... She's a white woman in brown/blackface."

The same month, Patti LaBelle lovingly called Grande a "white black girl" at the Billboard Women In Music Awards — an event Grande likened the event to her "quinceañera," a 15th birthday celebration in Latina culture, despite not being Latina.

In January 2019, Grande dropped "7 Rings," in which she raps, "'You like my hair? Gee, thanks, just bought it." She posted an Instagram story with the lyrics and a screenshot of a comment reading, "White women talking about their weaves is how we're gonna solve racism." She then apologized, commenting to The Shade Room, "I think her intention was to be like ... yay a white person disassociating the negative [stereotype] that is paired with the word 'weave.'"

As for her tan, Grande admitted in a December 2016 video with Madonna it's "fake," cracking, "It's all an illusion."

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7XCpKCsr5mbwW%2BvzqZmbnFkZ3y0tMCdsGarmZmybq3RopinmV2cv6K6w55m