Cynthia Erivo hails Ariana Grande as ‘my favourite person to sing with’

Wicked’s Elphaba and Glinda Take Over London’s Biggest Stage in Emotional Surprise Set

Traveloasisspot.com – Two of the most celebrated voices in contemporary musical theatre walked onto the floor of The O2 last Sunday and turned a pop concert into a full-blown Broadway moment. Cynthia Erivo, fresh from reprising her Oscar-nominated role as Elphaba Thropp in Wicked: For Good, joined Ariana Grande for a pair of songs from the West End phenomenon during the second night of the latter’s London residency. The appearance was unannounced, brief, and unmistakably electric.

The two performers, who first shared a screen as the witch and the witch’s best friend in the 2024 film adaptation, delivered renditions of “For Good” and “Happy Days” to a crowd of tens of thousands. For fans who have followed the Wicked franchise from stage to screen and back again, the sight of Erivo and Grande side by side under the arena’s lights carried a weight that transcended a simple guest spot. It was, in Erivo’s own words, a night she will carry forever.

A Message Written in the Aftermath

Erivo took to Instagram shortly after the encore, posting video clips of the duo on stage alongside a photograph of herself embracing Grande. The caption read like a letter to a sister:

“Ari, my sweet sister, my favourite person to sing with. Thank you for inviting me to share your stage, singing two songs that represent such a massive part of our lives. This is what we do it for, for the love of the work and for all of the fans. I missed this. We missed this. And I wish I had more words, but to put it simply, I will never forget this night. Like a handprint on my heart.”

She closed the post with “all my love.” Grande replied within hours, matching the sentiment:

“It’ll always come back to this… just as it started. I’m so grateful for this moment and for you… Love you always.”

The Residency in Context

Grande’s London run at The O2 spans ten nights and marks the final chapter of her Eternal Sunshine tour cycle. The Saturday opening show arrived on the heels of a bombshell announcement: the singer said she would step back from public life once the residency concluded. On stage during an earlier date on the tour, she framed the decision as coming from “a thoughtful and empowered place” and stressed it was “not a reactive or impulsive thing.” She thanked fans for what she called their “overwhelming” support as the shows got underway.

The setlist leaned heavily on her 2024 record Eternal Sunshine, wove in material from her latest album Petal, and revisited catalogue staples including “Into You,” “Thank U, Next,” and “7 Rings.” A cover of Lady Gaga’s “Rain On Me” rounded out a program that moved through several distinct moods across the evening.

Cinematic Staging and the Erivo Factor

Production design played a central role in shaping the concert’s atmosphere. Grande performed inside a deliberately dilapidated house set, while the arena’s lighting rig was reconfigured mid-show into the silhouette of a police helicopter. Short video interludes stitched between acts lent the performance a filmic cadence, and Erivo’s Sunday appearance amplified that cinematic quality further, inserting a narrative beat that no amount of pyrotechnics could replicate.

Throughout the night, Grande waved and blew kisses to sections of the crowd, maintaining a personal connection despite the scale of the venue.

What Comes Next for Grande

The residency’s conclusion will close out a period of sustained touring. Already, Grande has withdrawn from the upcoming London revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday In The Park With George, in which she was slated to appear opposite Wicked co-star Jonathan Bailey. The role is now being recast.

On the commercial front, Petal became Grande’s sixth consecutive number-one album in the United Kingdom, extending a streak that runs back through Eternal Sunshine, Positions (2020), Thank U, Next (2019), Sweetener (2018), and Dangerous Woman (2016). The title single’s music video, released earlier this year, briefly fuelled speculation about the singer’s health, though she has since appeared active and engaged across social platforms.

Last week, Grande also seemed to confirm her relationship with dancer and photographer Ricky Alvarez in a series of Instagram posts, adding a personal dimension to a period already saturated with professional milestones and public announcements.

The Wicked Thread

For context, both Erivo and Grande earned Academy Award nominations for their work in the 2024 Wicked film before returning to the stage for Wicked: For Good, the sequel chapter of the musical. Their Sunday performance at The O2 was therefore not merely a pop-collaboration cameo; it was a reunion of two artists who have spent the past two years inhabiting the same fictional universe, translating stagecraft into cinema and back again. The emotional charge of that shared history is precisely what made the two-song set feel less like a surprise guest slot and more like a homecoming.

As the residency winds down over the coming weeks, the London audience will have one final opportunity to witness the full scope of Grande’s staging before she steps away from the spotlight. Whether that pause lasts months or years remains to be seen, but the Sunday night at The O2 will likely be remembered as the moment the curtain briefly lifted on something neither performer expected to need again.