The Hologic WTA Tour’s biggest Swiftie has made room for another pop princess in her playlist.
Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek confessed this week at the Cincinnati Open that she gained “huge amounts of respect” for the talent of Ariana Grande after the latter’s star turn in the John M. Chu film adaptation of the musical “Wicked,” which she recently watched on her flight from Europe to North American for the summer hard-court season.
While Swiatek has made no secret of her affinity for Taylor Swift’s music, her fandom may have blinded her to appreciating the talent of some of Swift’s peers. Grande’s triple-threat performance as Glinda the Good Witch in the first of two film adaptations of the smash hit 2003 musical — the second-longest running production currently on Broadway — took her by surprise.
“I was always a Swiftie, so when Taylor was big in 2014, 2016, Ariana also was big — but I was kind of comparing them and I liked Taylor more. So, I didn’t really listen to Ariana and I didn’t really care that much,” she explained earlier this week in the Queen City.
“But then, on ‘Wicked,’ when I saw what she did to perform that well and how she raised her voice to reach a range she wasn’t able to reach before, and how she performed overall: danced, acted. I didn’t know she could do that. Probably people who were already interested in her knew about it, but I was just shocked. I got huge amounts of respect.”
Some of the most recognizable songs from the show — namely, ‘The Wizard and I,” “Popular,” “One Short Day,” and the iconic “Defying Gravity” — have since been on repeat.
“All of them are amazing,” Swiatek said, “and you can’t choose because they have totally different vibes.”
“You can listen to them every day,” she continued. “Some are pop, some are less pop but more like, operatic … I also loved the tribute to the original Broadway show with Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth. It was just amazing, and I loved it.
“I got addicted to listening to the soundtrack. Now, I had to stop because I was singing the songs in my head, like all the time, even too much!”
But as the US Open approaches, Swiatek added that she has no plans to include a visit to the Gershwin Theater in midtown Manhattan to see the stage version. At least not yet.
“I should wait for the second part of the movie before I go to watch the Broadway show,” she said. “Usually, when I read a book, for example, I don’t want to watch the movie first because I don’t want to ruin the visual image of the book that I have in my head. It’s kind of the same right now.
“I think I’m going to wait until November and then for sure the show will still be on next year. So, I’ll watch the show then.”