Ariana and Cynthia admit they had ‘no idea’ what was going on with Wicked holding space

The late year vitality of the holding space meme has been the best thing about Wicked mania, and honestly one of the funniest memes of the entirety of 2024. It’s just pure joyous, and the fact that whilst everyone has ridiculed the absolute drivel of the confusing conversation – one of many on the intense and emotional dramatic Wicked movie press tour – it’s all been done with so much love and good nature that all three of the parties concerned are embracing it. Now, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo have confessed they had “no idea” what journalist Tracy E Gilchrist was going on about – and explained the subtext of the holding space meme.

In case you missed it, a video of Out magazine journalist Tracy E Gilchrist went viral after she said the now infamous following statement to Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo during the Wicked press tour: “people have been taking the lyrics of ‘Defying Gravity’ and really holding space with that and feeling power in that,” to which Erivo responded: “Uh, I didn’t know that was happening.”

Credit: Universal Pictures/YouTube

Cynthia then exclaimed it was “really powerful” whilst Ariana Grande awkwardly grabbed her finger. It is stuff of legend, made even funnier when Gilchrist confesses she’s seen it on a “couple of posts” because she “is in queer media”. Hilarious.

In a new bit for Variety, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo confessed the had “no idea” what was happening with the entire holding space fiasco.

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“So I didn’t know what any part of it meant,” Ariana Grande told Variety. “I didn’t understand the first sentence. And then I definitely didn’t understand what was happening — how you [Erivo] responded. I was like, ‘Oh, what did she say? What did you hear?’ And I just wanted to be there ’cause I knew something big was happening, and I didn’t know how to be there.”

Cynthia then admitted “After a while, I didn’t know how to be there.”

Ariana then carried on explaining “[Gilchrist] said something that meant something to her, it meant something totally different to you, and then she tried to kind of take it somewhere else. And the craziest thing was, I remember in the moment asking myself, ‘Am I okay? Did I not hear something?'”

Ari then explained the now iconic finger grab, saying “I was like, ‘Cause she looks like she’s about to cry again. And I’m gonna grab this ’cause I think you might need something,'” she recalled. “And I don’t know what the tapping was about, but that happened.”

Cynthia explained how the queer media moment perplexed her further, saying “She’d said that she was seeing it because she was in queer media, and I was like, I honestly didn’t know what that meant. And am I also in queer media maybe? Work. Let’s both be there.”

The two Wicked icons reflected positively on the whole meme, though – with Ariana saying “I just am glad. I feel really relieved that the world had the same experience with this moment that I did because I felt like, ‘Oh, I’m not broken.'”

Cynthia concluded: “I do love how the world has, like, gone with it. I love that it’s become vernacular now, which is really fun, that people are constantly saying, ‘We’re really holding space with that.’ I want a T-shirt with ‘Holding space with that.'”

What a wholesome end to a wonderful saga.

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