Many celebrities can speak more than one language. Is that the case with Ariana Grande, and can she hold a conversation in Spanish?
Ariana Grande can speak some Spanish. The Grammy-winning hitmaker isn’t fluent in this language, but she recorded Spanglish versions of several hit singles. She also knows some Italian and Japanese, in addition to being fluent in English.
Stick around to hear Ariana Grande speaking Spanish and learn more about her language skills.
Trying to Speak Spanish
Ariana Grande demonstrated the ability to speak Spanish in several funny clips, and also tried to address her fans in this language during live performances and interviews. They make it obvious she isn’t fluent, but her accent is pretty good and she enjoys speaking and singing in Spanish – but more about that later!
In one of her tweets, Grande described herself as “about 75% fluent in Spanish.” When asked how she learned the language, the singer wrote, “I grew up in South Florida and a lot of my family members are fluent so I just picked it up! I studied it in school as well.”
Ariana Grande also reminded us of her Spanish-speaking skills in T-Mobile’s commercial from 2016. The video centers on a girl listening to “Side to Side” while driving on the open road, and kicking Grande out of the car so she could use her data for navigation.
After being left alone in the middle of nowhere, Grande yells, “Chica, tú necesitas datos ilimitados” (Girl, you need unlimited data). It’s only one simple line, but that was all her fans needed to be convinced her Spanish is top-notch.
Singing in Spanish
In addition to being able to speak some Spanish, Ariana Grande also enjoys singing in this language. “Qué Hiciste” by Jennifer Lopez is her favorite song to sing in Spanish, but she also recorded Spanglish versions of several of her own singles.
“The Way” featuring Mac Miller was Grande’s first big hit, and she wanted to make it more accessible to her Hispanic fans. The Grammy winner recorded its Spanglish version, which ended up peaking at no. 5 on Billboard’s Latin Pop Songs chart.
She gave us another smash hit with the Iggy Azalea collaboration “Problem”, and asked the Colombian rapper J Balvin to join her on the Spanglish cover of the song. This collaboration wasn’t heavily promoted and never made it to any of Billboard’s charts.
Grande also recorded Spanish track “Esta Noche” with the aspiring rapper and her close friend Bia. They performed it on several occasions during Grande’s Dangerous Woman Tour, where Bia joined her as one of the supporting acts.
“Esta Noche” was supposed to be released in 2016, but it was eventually scrapped after Bia decided to work on new material. Even though their collaboration didn’t work out, she praised Grande for working “hard as hell” and said she learned a lot from her.
What About Italian?
In addition to speaking Spanish, Ariana Grande also knows some Italian because both of her parents hail from this country. She identifies as an Italian American of half Sicilian and half Abruzzese descent but isn’t actually fluent in Italian.
That didn’t stop her from recording a song alongside the legendary Italian singer Andrea Bocelli. Back in 2015, they collaborated on the single titled “E Più Ti Penso” (“The more I think of you”), featured on his fifteenth studio album Cinema.
Ariana Grande was overjoyed to work with Bocelli and said that their collaboration means a lot to her and her family. The Italian singer echoed her statement, and told Billboard it was a privilege to sing with Grande and “have [his] voice heard by her young fans.”
The “7 Rings” singer is also passionate about Japanese culture and she’s been trying to learn this language for years. She eventually decided to quit her lessons after receiving a lot of backlash for getting a misspelled Japanese tattoo.