‘It’s bizarre’: Everything Ariana Grande has said about Paige Niemann’s impersonations of her

Paige Niemann’s chilling impersonation of Ariana Grande has sparked criticism across the internet after she stepped out as the singer for the Hollywood premiere of Companion earlier this week.

Paige rose to fame in 2019 when she recreated Ariana’s role as Cat Valentine in Victorious and Sam and Cat. Though she clearly had the look nailed down, something she had been working on since the age of 12, some said it was “creepy” and “disrespectful” to portray herself as Ariana. When Wicked came out in November, Paige was soon recreating scenes featuring Ariana’s iconic depiction of Glinda.

She found herself trending once again this week after dressing as Ariana for the Hollywood premiere, going as far as to dress in an outfit we’ve seen Ariana in before.

@paigeniemann

right 😃 #wicked #wickedmovie #glinda #cosplay

♬ original sound – paige niemann

Reacting to the moment, one person wrote on Twitter: “I need Ariana to come back to Twitter and cuss out paige niemann real bad then just deactivate and say nothing.”

“Nah but I would be hella mad if someone made their whole personality impersonating me and then made an OF,” another said.

Paige Niemann needs to be ✨stopped✨ not impersonating but copying after style and outfit Ariana does, it’s willlddd. pic.twitter.com/L2RoKo9STZ

— MARTIH (@martih97) December 10, 2024

Though Paige Niemann is not the only influencer to be deliberately impersonating celebrities for clout – she’s not even the only person doing Ariana – she is undoubtedly the most well known with 10.3 million followers on TikTok alone. Naturally, Ariana Grande has noticed her.

What has Ariana Grande said about Paige Niemann’s impersonations?

Ariana Grande has never publically addressed the trend besides reposting shady videos and sharing more general reactions on Twitter. She has never explicitly used Paige’s name either.

But back in 2019, Paige claimed that Ariana Grande was on board with the impersonations and was “proud” of her, though that seems to have changed more recently.

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“She reached out to me/ “I was shocked. She’s my idol so I was shaking a little bit…She said, ‘Let me know if you’re ever going to my Sweetener Tour, we can grab a hug’…She wanted to let me know that I am beautiful in my own way and I said ‘Thank you and thank you for being so kind to me.’ And she said, ‘I’m proud of you,” she told Entertainment Weekly at the time.

Nonetheless, in the same year, Buzzfeed reported that Ariana addressed the impersonations on Twitter with: “@knnewagb I just wonder why the cat voice/dialogue. I am sure she is the sweetest sweet sweetheart forreal!! But it’s definitely bizarre seeing people blend the two worlds lmao.”

A year later in 2020, Ariana seemed to address the Paige controversy again when she shared a video of filmmaker Jordan Firstman complaining about the rise of celebrity impersonations.

Credit: Buzzfeed

“And we put a completely arbitrary meaning onto that thing that the artist loves so much? Kind of, like, degrading its entire value?” he said, with Ariana adding her own statement on the since-deleted video.

She said: “Can this please also double as your impression of the ponytail TikTok girls who think doing the Cat Valentine voice and that wearing winged eyeliner and a sweatshirt is doing a good impersonation of me? Cause this really how it feels.”

Most recently, in a lie detector test with Variety, Ariana said she wanted to “confront” the impersonations in a “fun way.”

Paige doesn’t look to be stopping anytime soon.

Featured image credit: Paige Niemann/Universal Pictures