Ariana Grande Is A Surprisingly Good Impressionist

I admit, I didn't have the highest of expectations for Ariana Grande's Saturday Night Live hosting gig. She's so much of a pop star in my head now that I forget that she started as an actress. And, even when I remembered she was an actress, I couldn't remember what her comedy was like. So, when Ariana Grande hosted the March 12 episode of SNL , I was prepared for her to show up in the sketches, but leave the comedic heavy lifting to the regular cast members.

It turned out, though, that my low expectations were completely unfounded. Grande could actually give the rest of the cast a run for their money when it comes to celebrity impressions. In the back of my mind, I must've known that, because she's busted them out before on late-night talk shows. But SNL gave her another opportunity to do a bunch in a row, and they were all pretty amazing.

One sketch took place at the fictional inner workings of Tidal. When an equipment malfunction caused the streams to start going down, they called on an "intern," Chloe, played by Grande, to actually sing the songs in place of the original stars. (They did a similar sketch with Bruno Mars when he hosted.) There, Grande's musical impressions popped out one after another: Britney Spears (amazing), Shakira, Rihanna (just okay), Celine Dion, and Whitney Houston.

Could Chloe sing in the style of Ariana Grande? "Eh, sorry, not a big fan," she said.

It might not seem impressive for Grande to run through those impressions given that she's a singer for a living. But, in the next sketch, Grande broke out another impression, but this one wasn't musical. She did a spot-on impression of Jennifer Lawrence. Lawrence doesn't really have an exaggerated vocal tic to latch onto, so it's kind of a hard one to nail down, and Grande did it perfectly.

Could she have a second career as a comedian if the music gig doesn't pan out? If I were on SNL, I'd watch my back.

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