Let’s, maybe, I don’t know, hip-hop it up a little bit. Ariana said, ‘Absolutely not, don’t do it. I want to be Glinda, not Ariana Grande playing Glinda,'” Schwartz tells The Times. In fact, Grande was so protective of Glinda she didn’t even want to add what became a show-stopping dance break finale to the number.

In a new Los Angeles Times oral history, Wicked composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz explains:

When it came to her take on Glinda, Ariana Grande didn't want to stray too far from the original Broadway musical version of 'Wicked'.