It’s officially one year of ‘holding space’: Cynthia Erivo speaks out on Wicked’s biggest meme

We all remember where we were when we first were holding space. Last year, during the legendarily deranged press tour for Wicked, things reached new heights of ridiculous during a certain interview with queer media’s very own Tracy E Gilchrist. In the now infamous clip that has been quoted for what feels like an eternity, history was born. And would you believe it, it’s just turned one year old. Well, you probably will know that considering Wicked For Good is being released one year after Wicked – but whilst Wicked the film feels a year ago, the entire holding space fiasco feels like it was honestly 50 years ago. I have lived so many lifetimes since we were holding space for Defying Gravity. One year on, Cynthia Erivo just spoke out about holding space and the entire Wicked meme of it all – and she’s got one request that she doesn’t want to do.

Remembering history

So, the iconic holding space meme was born when Tracy E Gilchrist sat down with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. She said to them that she’d seen that people were taking the lyrics of Defying Gravity and really holding space with that, and finding power in that. It was confusing – but what was more confusing was the fact that Cynthia Erivo responded intensely and dramatically and said she “didn’t know that was happening” and that it was what she wanted.

Tracy then famously said she had seen “a couple of posts” but that it might be because she was “in queer media”. Ariana Grande also famously gripped Cynthia Erivo’s finger – which is arguably one of the most famous parts of it all. Both Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo later confessed they had no clue what Tracy was on about.

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It made a micro celeb out of Tracy who did spon con for it. Twitter is full today of people being very nostalgic for the saga.

this is kinda the best thing to happen this entire decade https://t.co/dJm4OmHRKz

— not j*ss 🦃 (@itsnotjess123) November 13, 2025

Cynthia Erivo spoke out about holding space one year on from Wicked

In her new profile in GQ, Cynthia Erivo opened up about the holding space Wicked meme in its one year anniversary. Cynthia Erivo called it “an innocent moment of confusion and human reaction”.

She continued: “I received one thing, Ari received another, and Tracy [the journalist] said something but probably meant to say something else, and then took back the thing that she was saying – it was all so confusing, so that all of us were, in the end, confused but… moved. It was very strange.”

She also said the one thing she hates about it all is that invasive Wicked fans come up to her and grab her finger like Ariana did in the video. “I hate it,” Cynthia said. “I don’t want anyone holding my finger.”

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