Cynthia Onyedinmanasu Chinasaokwu Erivo (born 8 January 1987) is an English actress, singer, and songwriter.
She is known for her performance as Celie in the Broadway revival of The Color Purple, for which she won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, and the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program, the latter two she shared with the rest of the cast.
Erivo ventured into films in 2018, with roles in the heist film Widows and the thriller Bad Times at the El Royale. In 2019, she portrayed abolitionist Harriet Tubman in the biopic Harriet, for which she earned nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Ariana Grande has explained “perplexing” changes to her speaking voice which, after starring in Wicked, fans noticed seemed higher than normal.During an appearance on the SmartLess podcast on Monday (February 3), the ‘Eternal Sunshine’ singer was asked by co-hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett about techniques she employed to protect her voice on tour.Grande explained that she sometimes shifts to a higher pitch when required to talk for long periods of time, as has happened over the course of the infamously emotional Wicked press tour, which saw Grande and co-star Cynthia Erivo regularly breaking down in tears.“The thing that I do that perplexes people so much – and it’s just so funny because if you’re a person who uses their voice, you know about this – is if I have a long day of press or if I have to sing, I’ll place [my voice] a little higher,” she said.“I’ll change my vocal placement to kind of preserve.
But that is just something that’s healthy for the voice. It’s just basically pitching your voice up a tiny bit,” she continued.“It’s just a normal thing for vocalists.
But people are like, ‘That’s not her natural voice.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, it is actually, but it’s just a little higher.’ All of it is natural.”The singer and actress admitted that it draws negative feedback on social media, saying: “It’s so funny because I’ve talked about it a zillion times, and people are still like, ‘Where’s your real voice?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, they all are.'”She has previously had to defend her tendency to “voice switch”, and last year responded to comments under a viral clip of her on Podcrushed, writing: “I’ve been speaking in a slightly higher placement than I usually speak in because I’ve been doing a lot of.
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