(*warning: this article contains spoilers for Wicked*)

Wicked is officially here! After twelve years in the making, we are finally getting the chance to experience it. proper movie treatment it deserves. Based on the 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire and the Broadway musical Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz by Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz; which in turn were inspired by the works of L. Frank Baum and the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

It has an incredible ensemble of actors: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande (who is using her full name Ariana Grande-Butera), Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, Marissa Bode, Ethan Slater, Jonathan Bailey, and Jeff Goldblum; also surprising cameos from the originators of the Elphaba and Galinda roles, Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth, and the composer and lyricist himself Stephen Schwartz. The film’s standouts are Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba (who will become The Wicked Witch of the West)  and Ariana Grande, but Ariana almost steals the film completely as the perky Galinda Upland (who will become Glinda the Good Witch).

Ariana Grande has been getting a lot of Oscar buzz for her performance. I believe that they are campaigning for her for the Best Supporting Actress category she is the front-runner by far. The other contenders are Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez for Emelia Perez, Isabella Rossellini for Conclave, Monica Barbaro for A Complete Unknown, Felicity Jones for The Brutalist, and Danielle Deadwyler for The Piano Lesson, and Natasha Lyonne for His Three Daughters (Margaret Qualley needs a nomination for The Substance). All great performances in dramas (the one exception being Emelia Perez, which is a musical), but here is the case for Ariana’s portrayal of Galinda Upland; it is not only a role that requires singing and dancing, but it also contains an incredible amount of comedic and dramatic moments (all of which Ariana succeeds in).

Ariana is a natural comedienne, tossing her hair and doing great physical actions (taking some of her past training on the Nickelodeon shows Victorious and Sam & Cat and putting them to use). As for the dramatic scenes, she stands her ground when acting opposite Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey to acting legends Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh.

Many are saying that Ariana’s performance during No One Mourns The Wicked, the film’s opening scene, brought them to tears. In the scene, Galinda gets handed a torch to burn a mock-up of Elphaba that was made by the Munchkins while celebrating her death. Galinda has a look of pain, and tears fill her eyes when she sets it on fire (trying to hold back the grief she feels for her dead friend). Though we have not seen the rest of Galinda’s story, her performance in this is enough to secure her a nomination (and potential win).

The character arc of Galinda is impressive despite being onscreen for 80 minutes for a 160-minute film, which is only half of the film’s run time. The first meeting she has with Elphaba is incredibly funny, from murmuring that she can “fix” Elphaba’s green skin to accidentally volunteering to be Elphaba’s roommate. Once she is roomed with Elphaba, she is overcome by jealousy, which leads to the catchy number What Is This Feeling? and when Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) arrives, she becomes extremely flirty and subtly bullies Elphaba by giving her granny’s hat to her because “It matches everything she owns.” She has a change when she realizes what she has done to Elphaba while a small group of them go to the Oz Dust Ballroom, she abandons her “friends” Pfanee ( SNL’s Bowen Yang) and Shen Shen (Bronwyn James) to dance with Elphaba to show that she is sorry and cares about her. Once she has become friends with Elphaba, she sings Popular (the ballgown interlude in this song had both showings I went to howling with laughter). Later, she decides to drop the “A” in Galinda to honor Dr. Dillamond (Peter Dinklage), who had been taken earlier by Ozian guards. Elphaba is asked to see the Wizard of Oz, and she invites Glinda to come with her; when they arrive in Oz, Glinda’s loyalty to Elphaba is shown by trying to coax her to help the Wizard and his terrible plan or by helping her escape. When they are surrounded, and Elphaba decides to leave the Emerald City, Glinda gives her a cloak to stop her from trembling, and they sing Defying Gravity. When she sees Elphaba leave on her broom, she has tears in her eyes, the same emotion that she had when she had to burn the mock-up of Elphaba.

Her Oscar chances are fairly high, she is currently the front-runner for the category with Zoe Saldaña following close behind her. The best supporting actress race is very weak this year. The other contenders seem so “Oscar® bait-like,” but Ariana Grande does not; her performance is the most surprising because she is a pop star taking on a role that has been in the cultural zeitgeist for 20-plus years, the pressure was monumental, and she pulled it off.

Comedy is an overlooked category at the Oscars, many comedic performances have won in the supporting actress category: Lee Grant in Shampoo, Olympia Dukakis in Moonstruck, Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost, and Goldie Hawn in Cactus Flower. Musicals have always fared well at the Oscars, Beauty and the Beast, The Sound of Music, West Side Story (1961 and 2021), The Wizard of Oz, Evita, and The Little Mermaid, to name a few, as well as the musical performances of James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy, Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins, Rex Harrison for My Fair Lady, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris in West Side Story (1961), and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago.

Don’t be alarmed if you see Ariana get nominated, Danielle Brooks got nominated for The Color Purple. The Oscar nominations announcements will be on January 17th, so let’s keep an eye out for Ariana Grande’s name.