Ariana Grande didn't understand "any part" of that viral "holding space" interview

The Wicked press tour has officially gone on for so long that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are commenting on their own comments. Or, in the vernacular that arose like beautiful magic a few weeks ago, they’re taking a viral moment from a past junket with Out Magazine and really holding space with that and feeling the power in that.

Well, Erivo might be. Grande apparently “didn’t know what any part of it meant,” as she explained in a recent interview with Variety. She’s talking, of course, about journalist Tracy Gilchrist’s assertion that people were “taking the lyrics of ‘Defying Gravity’ and really holding space with that,” which prompted an emotional response from Erivo, and Grande to hold just one of her fingers in turn. “I didn’t understand the first sentence, and then I definitely didn’t understand… how you (Erivo) responded,” Grande continued. “I just wanted to be there. Because I knew something big was happening, and I didn’t know how to be there.”

Something big is right. The much-memed moment has found its way across social media, onto t-shirts (one of which is currently heading Grande’s way), and even into the vocal warmups of the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus. But Erivo, who seemed so moved by Gilchrist’s comments in the moment, apparently also “didn’t know what that meant.”