Ariana Grande may have accidentally revealed her opinion on Carrie Underwood’s performance during Donald Trump’s inauguration.
On Monday (January 20) the “Before He Cheats” singer sang her rendition of “America the Beautiful” a cappella after experiencing some technical difficulties. Shortly after, Evan Ross Katz posted a photo of Underwood singing on Instagram showing former vice president Kamala Harris making a face.
“Kamala Harris evoking Coco Montrese (’Girl, find the note’) watching Carrie Underwood at today’s chilling Inauguration,” Katz captioned the post, referencing a RuPaul’s Drag Race episode where Montrese criticized another contestant’s singing.
One of the likes on the post was from Grande, although it appeared to be removed as of Tuesday afternoon.
Many people still commented on Katz’s post, mentioning that the Wicked star liked the image.
“ARIANA LIKED. OH MISS GRANDE THE VOCALIST AND LEGEND YOU ARE!! @arianagrande” one comment read.
“Ily [I love you] Ariana,” wrote another
Despite the post appearing to make fun of the American Idol winner’s performance, many people applauded her for making the decision to sing without music at the last minute.
“If you know the words, help me out here,” Underwood told the audience in the Capitol Rotunda.
She was accompanied by the Armed Forces Chorus and the United States Naval Academy Glee Club while cameras also showed members of the crowd including Harris and former president Joe Biden joining in with the lyrics.
“Now that is a flex. Imagine being so talented that when technology fails, you just go, ‘Fine, I’ll do it live!’ and crush it a cappella in front of thousands,” one person wrote on X/Twitter after her performance. “Carrie Underwood doesn’t need auto-tune; auto-tune probably takes notes from her.”
Prior to Underwood’s performance, she received intense backlash with many people claiming they would boycott her music for supporting Trump.
Whoopi Goldberg later came to her defense on The View, saying that Underwood made her choice and she needs to “stand behind that.”
“People do what they do for whatever reason,” she said, before referring to how MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski met with Trump in Mar-a-Logo in November after he won the election. “I gotta stand behind that.”
“I stand behind her,” she continued about Underwood. “If I believe I have the right to make up my mind to go perform some place, I believe they have the same right. I have to support. It doesn’t mean I’m particularly interested. I won’t be watching, but that’s just me.”
Ahead of the performance, Underwood told The Independent in a statement: “I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the Inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event.
“I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future.”
