Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo just turned one of Broadway’s most beloved power ballads into Grammy gold, picking up a trophy for their duet on “Defying Gravity” from Wicked. The win instantly reframed the awards-season narrative around the film adaptation, which had been defined by Oscar disappointment, and gave both stars a fresh kind of momentum heading into the movie’s release.
The Recording Academy’s nod also planted Wicked squarely in the middle of the current pop landscape, not just the theatre world, by honoring Grande and Erivo in a category that pits them against radio heavyweights. It is the kind of crossover validation that can change how a movie musical is marketed, how its songs are programmed, and how its two leads are positioned in the next phase of their careers.
The surprise Grammy moment that changed the Wicked narrative
The win for “Defying Gravity” landed in what many viewers never see, the Grammys’ so‑called “Premiere” ceremony, where a long list of categories is handed out before the televised show. Neither Erivo nor Grande was in the room when their names were called, so the victory for the Wicked duet was announced without the usual viral speech, yet reports from the Premiere room made clear that the category result still turned heads. The Recording Academy had just signaled that a show tune, reimagined for a blockbuster film, could stand toe to toe with mainstream pop collaborations.
That shift is especially striking given how the same project had been treated on the film side. Earlier this year, Wicked: For Good was entirely shut out from the Oscar nominations, a snub that left fans and awards-watchers wondering if the industry was already tired of big-budget musicals. Coverage of the Grammys framed the “Defying Gravity” win as a kind of karmic correction, with one analysis noting that, of all the consolation prizes available after the Oscar shutout, a Grammy for Wicked was about as good as it gets.
How “Defying Gravity” conquered a pop field
What makes this particular trophy stand out is the category. Grande and Erivo’s duet won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, a slot that has become one of the most competitive in the show, packed with radio staples and streaming juggernauts. The category, officially listed as the Grammy Award for, Group Performance, has historically gone to acts built for Top 40, not to a pair of theatre powerhouses belting a Stephen Schwartz anthem.
The field they beat underscores how unusual this outcome is. One high profile collaboration that had been heavily favored in pop discussions fell short in this race, with coverage of the Grammys’ snubs and surprises pointing out that a major contender lost pop duo/group performance to Cynthia Erivo and Grande’s Wicked track. In a year when categories were stacked with names like Eilish and Billie Eilish, the fact that a Broadway-rooted song could cut through that noise says a lot about how effectively “Defying Gravity” was reintroduced to a new generation.
Grande and Erivo’s reactions, and what the win means for them
Even from a distance, Ariana Grande made it clear how much the recognition meant. After the ceremony, she shared a message to fans and to her co‑star, writing that she was “so grateful” for the Grammy and adding, “Congratulations to the incredible @cynthiaerivo I love you & am so grateful to share this.” Her note, captured in coverage of her Congratulations post, framed the win less as a solo achievement and more as a shared milestone for a partnership that has been under intense scrutiny since the Wicked casting was announced.
For Cynthia Erivo, the Grammy adds another major credential to a résumé that already includes an Oscar nomination and a Tony. Reports on the win highlighted how the award for “Defying Gravity” in Wicked officially made “Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande Win Grammy for” their work together, cementing Erivo’s status as a cross‑platform force who can move from Broadway to film to the recording studio. The recognition, noted in an IMDB recap of the night, also reinforces the idea that both performers are now central to how Wicked is being sold to audiences who might never have seen the stage show.
Where Wicked fits in a crowded Grammy year
The Wicked win did not happen in a vacuum. The 68th Annual Grammy Awards at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles were packed with storylines, from Latin music milestones to Broadway crossovers. A social media post from Facebook captured the sense of surprise in the room as various categories broke from predictions, describing the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles as the setting for a night when expectations kept getting upended. In that context, a Wicked track taking a pop category fit right in with the broader theme of the ceremony.
Elsewhere on the theatre front, Buena Vista Social Club picked up the Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album, a win that came after The Band of Buena Vista Social Club Never Thought They would be on Broadway and Now They Have a Special Tony, as detailed in a READ feature on the group’s journey. The broader list of winners, from Album of the Year honoree “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” by Bad Bunny to other marquee categories laid out in a comprehensive List of Grammy recap, shows how the Recording Academy tried to balance commercial juggernauts with more niche projects. Within that mix, Wicked’s presence in a headline pop category gave the film a visibility boost that a more predictable theatre-only win would not have delivered.
Why this matters for movie musicals and the next awards cycle
The timing of the “Defying Gravity” win could reshape how studios think about rolling out movie musicals. Wicked: For Good may have been ignored by the Oscars, but the Grammy spotlight suggests that, with the right collaborators, songs from a film can live as standalone pop events. One analysis of the awards season noted that, less than two weeks after the Oscar shutout, the Wicked team could point to a fresh piece of hardware and say, in effect, that the project still had cultural heat, a point underscored in the Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo Grammys coverage that tied the win directly to the earlier Oscar snubs.
Zooming out, the night’s full slate of winners, from SWAG by Justin Bieber to Man’s Best Friend by Sabrina Carpenter, laid out in a detailed Caption Options rundown, shows how crowded the pop landscape has become. That a Wicked track could cut through that noise and claim a major category suggests that future movie musicals might lean even harder into pop‑forward casting and production, chasing not just box office and streaming numbers but also a shot at the Grammys’ main stage. For Grande and Erivo, the message is simple: their partnership on “Defying Gravity” did more than honor a classic show tune, it proved that a Broadway anthem can still feel like a chart‑ready event in the middle of a hypercompetitive awards year.
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