Ariana Grande responds to Bette Midler: ‘Always a fan no matter what my love’

Ariana Grande

Yesterday, I talked about how Bette Midler singled out Ariana Grande as an example of what pop stars shouldn’t do. Bette’s specific advice to these starlets was “don’t make a wh*re out of yourself to get ahead.” Not a wise choice of words. Tossing out insults like the “w” word is no way to win people over in a discussion. I understand Bette’s desire to pull the “get off my lawn” card, but c’mon. It’s not like Bette’s never dressed like a vamp or hoisted the jubblies to the moon. She’s done so on several occasions.

It was an uneven match with Bette, 68, going after a 21-year-old starlet. News quickly spread to Ariana’s left side, and she delivered a surprisingly classy response. Ariana tweeted a photo of Bette in her old mermaid costume with this note:

“Bette was always a feminist who stood for women being able to do whatever the F they wanted without judgement!!! Not sure where that Bette went but I want that sexy mermaid back!! Always a fan no matter what my love, and I will still quote first wives club every single day of my life lmao.”

[From Ariana Grande on Twitter]

See? Ariana showed some restraint and held her ground without going all diva. Because we all heard the stories about Ariana hoping her fans would “f***ing die and throwing tantrums. Someone’s turning her image around in just a few simple tweets. I smell some PR training!

Bette Midler

Ariana Grande

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN

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67 Responses to “Ariana Grande responds to Bette Midler: ‘Always a fan no matter what my love’”

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  1. Jules says:

    I am sure the Devine Miss M cares what this pony tailed corporate creation was told to say.

    • Jayna says:

      Miss M was out of line describing her voice as silly high voice and her other comments. Ariana is mild compared to those like Miley, Gaga, Nicki, Beyonce regarding vamping it up sexually all the time. Gaga has been nude more times than I can count. But she takes on a young girl and makes fun of her voice, referencing acting like a whore regarding popstars, etc. Why not take on the ones that are really playing the sexuality, nudity card for performing instead of singling out the least offensive one? And Ariana actually has a really good voice compared to the likes of some other pop stars. Bette is much older and I thought the way she singled out and dissed Ariana in such a demeaning way was classless, coming at a young girl like that. What, is she afraid of Miley or Gaga or Nicki?

      And, yes, Miss M, who was raunchy on stage and use her boobs all the time, did reply after Ariana’s classy tweet. She pretty much conceded her contradiction and poked fun at herself for judging Ariana in the way she did.

      She tweeted a few hours later.

      “About my screed on @ArianaGrande, all I can say is, ‘Spoken like a reformed old whore! She does have a beautiful voice, on a couch or off,’”

      • msw says:

        I don’t know how I feel about her reply, but that is hilarious.

      • Jules says:

        Whatever. This little poptart will be here today and gone tomorrow as soon as the corporate heads are tired of her.

      • Jasmine says:

        Ariana for me stands out from all these other flesh baring pop stars because she looks so young and she plays it up with the effed up pony tails and Lolita expressions. Shes going for a baby hooker look rather than say the grown sexy woman thing . I seriously worry about the types of men who find her act hot, wonder what messed up crap we would find on their hard drives if we checked.

      • OriginalTessa says:

        I always thought that was Selena Gomez’s appeal as well. Baby prostitute.

      • Kitten says:

        LOL! That’s funny. I give Bette credit for owning it.

      • littlemissnaughty says:

        While I agree that she didn’t HAVE to single her out and she certainly went too far using that word, let’s not go crazy. Ariana is a young woman, not a little girl, despite her looks. She parades around on stage in sexy outfits and wants to be taken seriously as an adult but then, when someone picks on her, we’re supposed to forget all that and treat her like a kitten that needs protection. That is not happening, you can’t have it both ways.

        As for this question: “Why not take on the ones that are really playing the sexuality, nudity card for performing instead of singling out the least offensive one?” That’s a matter of opinion, who’s least offensive. And yes, she could’ve singled out Katy Perry, who I personally have a much bigger problem with. But no matter who she would’ve picked, people would’ve lost their minds.

        Miss M has always been outspoken and if every single celebrity (or in her case major star) chose their words super carefully all the time, it would be boring as all hell. She’s known for her big mouth. Maybe leave out the wh*re next time but other than that, please continue.

        Now, Ariana (or her PR people, who knows) did take the high road and I always appreciate that. Good for her.

      • otaku fairy says:

        @Jayna: Thank you! Regardless of whether or not one is a fan of Ariana Grande, think she’s just a ‘corporate creation’, (a label that is given to every young or semi-young mainstream artist) or a flash in the pan, she’s still a person, and Bette’s comments were hypocritical and out of line.

        @Jasmine & OriginalTessa: I’ve heard people say that Ariana and Selena are deliberately playing up a lolita image before, but I still disagree. I haven’t yet seen them use sexualization of children to garner attention. (Unless I’ve missed something). I think the problem is that Ariana is a petite, young-looking 21-year-old who wears short and sometimes frilly skirts and has her hair in a ponytail most of the time, and that combo makes people think of a kid. I also think she’s aware of the fact that some people see her as child-looking, which is probably part of the reason why lately she’s been wearing heavier, darker make-up, thigh-high boots, and less bright-colored clothes over the past year. I think she wants to make herself look older. I think that if she was more developed and had short dark hair that wasn’t in a ponytail, her image wouldn’t feel so lolita-esque to people. With Selena I think it’s a combination of people being used to her as a child-star and the fact that she also has a young face. So seeing her in bold make-up and sexy dresses will feel awkward to people.

      • JenniferJustice says:

        I’m not going crazy, but I am calling out Midler as a total complete hyocrate and I’m not just talking about using her body for attention and hype. I’m talking about her being talentless on top of it. Having to build her success on performing for horny soldiers. She is/always has been extremely unfortunate looking, and can’t sing to save herself. If it weren’t for Johnny Carson, nobody would know who Bette Midler even is. He is the one who catapulted her to stardom. Midler has always reminded me of just another Jennifer Tilley, except Midler pretends she can sing.

        As for Arianna, and I’m not even a huge fan, she dresses no differently than Brittney Spears back in the day and she, too, had the same coy, innocent look/style – except she had her hair in pig tails. Same Catholic school-girl skirts, mid-drifts and pouty, baby face. At least Grande can sing – you can’t understand the words, but she can sing.

    • feebee says:

      I think many missed the point of what Bette was saying. Or maybe my take is wrong but I understood her to be saying that Ariana’s voice – after the silly high bit, she said she had a very wholesome voice and that the slithering about on a couch looked ridiculous. I think the incongruent sound and image is what she was commenting on regarding AG. The “wh-re” comment was just another generalized statement.

      • JenniferJustice says:

        I’m sure that is what she meant, but she’s still a hypocrate. How is gyrating on a couch or simulating sex any different than Midler’s days of bouncing around on stage purposely jiggling her boobs in risque` costumes? So one mimics sex poses and the other puts the focus on her giant bosom. They are both provocative and promiscuous. Trying to say isn’t/wasn’t as bad as the other is just splitting hairs. Midler has always had a big loud mouth. She doesn’t seem like the brightest bulb.

      • Tiffany :) says:

        I think that might be what she meant too…but that doesn’t make it any better.

        Bette was essentially saying that only women who look outrageously sexy should feel free to explore their sexuality, and women who look wholesome should be limited to only acting wholesome. It kind of puts women in a box, and I don’t agree.

        I love Bette though…my childhood friend and I used to watch Beaches and then hug each other and bawl our eyes out. It bonds you to an actress when she moves you that much!

    • Grant says:

      Um, if someone like Rihanna or Katy Perry can establish herself as a force to be reckoned with in the pop landscape, so can Ariana. Ariana can sing both of those silly girls into the ground.

  2. BeBeA says:

    baby Mariah, annoys me! That’s all!

    • QQ says:

      And to be fair she looked absolutely ridiculous trying to be a sexy teen writhing in that couch in that Love me Harder Video

      • kri says:

        So true, QQ. She makes me afraid to look at her directly. I have to use a mirror like Perseus and Medusa-I’m afraid if I gaze directly at her, my right side will totes disappear, and I will only be left with…left.Someone put her back in her box.

  3. NewWester says:

    I wonder if Ariana had to be told who Bette Midler was? That tweet is very restrained

    • otaku fairy says:

      Maybe, maybe not. I’m only a year older than her and while I didn’t know a lot about her, I did know who she was and some of what she’s known for. Ariana though has always been into female entertainers who were around before she was born, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she knew a little bit more about Bette Midler than I did.

    • Hautie says:

      “That tweet is very restrained…”
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      Obviously, her management did that tweet. And by doing so, kept it simple.

  4. lisa says:

    Arianna handled that well.

    • Jules says:

      Like she thought of that………….LOL

      • GoodNamesAllTaken says:

        Regardless of who thought of it, she handled it well.

      • Jules says:

        And we know this how? Because her PR people said so?

      • GoodNamesAllTaken says:

        Jules, I mean her public statement was well stated. She didn’t lower herself to a bratty tantrum. Perhaps she wanted to and wasn’t allowed to, perhaps as we speak she is holding her breath until she turns blue, but publicly SHE HANDLED IT WELL.

    • GoodNamesAllTaken says:

      I agree. I’m not a fan, but this was rising above it, and I always admire that.

    • Sugar says:

      Ariana’s publicist handled that well. Or well-ish. The tweet was very condescending.

      • OriginalTessa says:

        Also punctuated horribly. Do publicists not check that? Maybe Ari really did write it.

      • What? says:

        I always suspect that the PR “dumbs down” the grammar a little bit in these things to make the statement more realistic.

      • otaku fairy says:

        …”The tweet was very condescending.”

        Yes it was, but unlike the initial comment that brought it on, she didn’t get problematic. She wasn’t overly nasty either, like she could have been. She simply through some shade and hilighted the hypocrisy without going over the top.

    • Grant says:

      I don’t think it’s very hard to believe that Ariana was the one who composed that statement. She’s got a gay big bro. You know he had her watching First Wives Club from the moment she emerged from Mommy.

  5. Lex says:

    While a lot of what Bette said held truth, it was expressed terribly. Now she looks like a hypocritical bitter old woman. She likely wouldn’t make it if she were 20 and trying to launch her career today. It was really disappointing to see her name Ariana specifically.

    Many of her films portray her as the unattractive friend, always unlucky in love. These comments just seem likes she’s jealous of the pretty popular girls at high school.

    P.s. I am now thinking Bette was calculated in her comments; she has some new project at the moment; I saw posters of her around London. Trying to be relevant again perhaps?

    • OriginalTessa says:

      “She likely wouldn’t make it today”
      I think that was kind of her point. The girls today are just writhing sex dolls, there’s not much more to their stage persona. Someone like Bette who had a whole act, and a real personality, wouldn’t fit into this over-sexualized music scene.

      • otaku fairy says:

        Have you seen some of the other aspects of Bette’s career? She wasn’t any less sexual than some of the female artists today, including Ariana.

      • JenniferJustice says:

        Midler wouldn’t make it today because today you have to have talent and be promiscuous. All Midler ever had was promiscuity. She can barely carry a tune. Listen to her voice – it is not a singing voice. She was more successful on Broadway where she could perform more than just vocally. She was mostly successful in singing for the troops – because all they wanted was to see some boob and she gave them that. Carsen launched her singing career and nobody really knows why – I suspect he was a “boob man.”

  6. Pont neuf says:

    Oh, come on!

    Better Midler started her career in a period during which it didn’t matter whether you covered up or not: you needed to have a lot of talent, because ProTools weren’t around and people actually cared whether you could sing well or not.

    Yes, Bette and many other singers did OCCASIONALLY wear more revealing outfits, but it wasn’t a central part of their image and they only adopted certain identities for the sake of performing – they were good singers who acted a part for every song, not young women of very limited talent (if they do have any talent at all), who wouldn’t get noticed without tiny, super tight outfits, a ton of make up, Photoshop and a great team of publicists who keep pointing at them and saying “très chic!”, like Georges Hugon in Nana.

    I think that Ariana should be flattered that Bette was kind enough to mention her at all. And Bette is right: while I wouldn’t call Ariana’s voice ‘silly’ (she is one of the few pop singers nowadays who can actually sing), she does have that tacky and super tired “I’m a naughty, child-like Lolita… Come and get me, big boy!” shtick that is so sickening. The sad thing is that we are so used to Madonna-inspired shock tactics designed to conceal incompetence and lack of talent, that we cannot imagine 99% of singers succeeding without adopting this “I’m just an oversexed object and I like it” persona all the time.

    As for Ariana’s response, it would have been more convincing with proper punctuation and grammar… Oh, and also if we didn’t know that she does behave like a spoiled, unprofessional brat very often. She should be thanking her lucky stars that a true diva like Bette even bothered to mention her name.

    • otaku fairy says:

      So in other words, someone should be grateful if a more successful person deigns to publicly call them a wh*re or other such slurs? I guess with that logic, Sandra Fluke should have been grateful when Rush Limbaugh called her a sl*t, and Moby should be flattered that Eminem called him a f*g in one of his rap songs.

      Ariana Grande is not a very good example of an artist who is nothing but sex sex sex and nothing else. Yes, she often wears outfits that can be described as sexy and has two or three songs out of I don’t know how many that are about her sexual pleasure (heaven for forbid a 21-year-old woman experiment with wearing sexy outfits that she couldn’t at 16 or talk about sex! Such exploitation!) but most of her music isn’t about sex, she isn’t using sexual shock while skimping on talent, and she’s tame. And if someone’s default response to a woman wearing revealing clothes is to call them an oversexed object, it already shows that in their mind a woman is required to dress modestly in order to be a person and not an object. Their problem, not the problem with the wearer of the clothes.

    • JenniferJustice says:

      “Better Midler started her career in a period during which it didn’t matter whether you covered up or not: you needed to have a lot of talent, because ProTools weren’t around and people actually cared whether you could sing well or not. ”

      What?! Everybody knows Bette Midler can’t sing. She was a joke who tottered around on stage jiggling – pretty much Chrissy from Three’s Company. She sang for troops who had way lower standards and were happy to see anybody from America – let alone with big tata’s hanging out. Midler is/was gross. Never understood her success. I know she’s a fav of the LGBT Community and she did alot of Broadway for a time and acquired a fanbase there. But to say she had to be talented to make it back then is hilarious. If you mean talent as in big boobs and willing to bank on them, then I guess she fits the bill.

      • JustChristy says:

        There is a difference between having a nice singing voice, and having the actual ability to sing. You clearly aren’t a fan, and Midler’s voice must sound like arsenic to your ears. But just because YOU aren’t a fan, doesn’t mean she can’t actually sing. If she completely lacked talent, her career would not have gone on as long as it has.

        It’s like with Britney Spears. Her voice isn’t good. She can sing, but I don’t want to listen to her. These women are more under the entertainer umbrella than solely being singers.

  7. Kiddo says:

    Well done, MC².

  8. msw says:

    I don’t really listen to pop music, so can someone tell me, does AG have talent?

    • tifzlan says:

      Yes, although i wish she would enunciate her words.

      • feebee says:

        OMG!!!!!! I just said this on Sunday to my 10 year old and she looked at me like I was tearing Adriana a new one. ha ha ha ha. So glad I’m not alone. I don’t mind her voice but her enunciation is horrible! I know singing is different from talking but honestly if you used AG’s example someone might think you were having a stroke.

        (No offense meant to anyone who has suffered a stroke!)

    • JenniferJustice says:

      She can sing. She has a broad range and more octaves than the average singer. She doesn’t enunciate well at all and she warbles the last note of practially every line. When I’m watching The Voice and the coaches are telling the contestants not to over sing every last note, I always wonder why nobody told this to Grande.

    • Josefa says:

      She’s got a lot of natural talent and I think her music is very well-composed as far as tacky pop music goes. But she lacks practice, she doesn’t enunciate well and is an awful dancer. Yeah, yeah, singers don’t have to dance. But she does, and she tries to be sexy, and she fails.

  9. paola says:

    Since Bette Midler backtracked what she said with
    “spoken like a reformed old w-ore! She does have a beautiful voice, on a couch or off.”
    I think I’ve lost all the respect I had for Mrs. Midler.

    If you release a public statement than you have to be strong enought to own it even when the counterpart responds.

  10. Naddie says:

    Ariana Little trying hard to be pretty and sexy is so… tireing. She looks like a 4 year old dressing mommy’ s clothers.

  11. Shelley says:

    Would someone please, please post a photo of this waxen-faced munchkin from her “bad” side?

    • JenniferJustice says:

      Google her and click images. You’ll see pics of her from her Nickelodeon days. She uses her right side because she has a very prominent dimple on her right side. She has no dimple on her left side. I’m guessing that because she’s been packaged as a baby sex-pot, she wants the dimple showing. That’s my take.

  12. scout says:

    Good for Ariana for that response! She is young, does what and how she knows best, no need for others who already had their day to call names. Seems unfair to me. Let Ariana makes hay while the Sun shines like everybody else 🙂

  13. Laura says:

    I love both Bette and Ariana and I’m glad this didn’t morph into a bigger deal/battle.

    Both ladies are talented and both have shown their fair share of skin.

    • otaku fairy says:

      Agreed. This could have gotten messy. I compared it to the response of Miley Cyrus when Sinead O-Connor slut-shamed her. Now, I do think what Sinead has said to and about Miley was a little bit worse than what Bette said about Ariana, only because Sinead’s commentary also contained victim-blaming. But Miley’s response was absolutely horrible- she went on to use Sinead’s mental illness to attack her and even got Amanda Bynes and her mental illness involved.

      When people say nasty things about you in public (especially if those involved are public figures) the temptation is probably to be as belligerent as possible when you first get wind of it. A lot of people probably wouldn’t have handled it so well- TMz is saying that Ariana was pissed and felt that the comment was totally hypocritical. I wonder if she was able to handle it the way she did because there was time for someone on her team to calm her down before she tweeted, or if her response was entirely someone else’s doing. Either way, she said what needed to be said and didn’t cross a line.

  14. Santia says:

    Best response ever. Not a fan of Ariana or her Lolita outfits, but that was an excellent response.

  15. db says:

    Oy with the motherly advice – reminds me of Sinead and Miley. Leave the young ‘uns to figure it out on their own.

    • JenniferJustice says:

      Thank you. If somebody is going to call out a younger person for their perceived bad behavior, it better not be an older person who acted like a complete fool themselves when they were young. It’s not just the hypocracy, but the target person isn’t going to listen to them or think they have any credibility on the subject.

  16. feebee says:

    On it’s face, it is a fine statement but it is dripping with insincerity. I think the lmao at the end is her acknowledging her fake-ass reply. “My love”?, “will quote first wives club every single day of my life”? And again correct me if I’m wrong but when was the last time Bette was in her mermaid costume – was it in AG’s lifetime?

    So yeah, Adriana got the lmao bit right.

  17. aenflex says:

    Dunno, seemed much classier when Bette did it. Double standard on my part for sure.

  18. pnichols says:

    Is it wrong that I want to smack the s*** out of this kid and I don’t even kill bugs.

  19. Dirty Martini says:

    Miss M is still divine. SHe definitely could have couched (ahem!) her words a bit more, but her message was worthy of consideration: rely on your talent more and on your ass(ets) less.

    And Ms Grande did –for once in her life — respond in an appropriate manner.

    Nods to both on this one.

  20. JenniferJustice says:

    It’s a sad day when a teenybopper Nickelodeon project shows more class than a successful songstress of decades in her 60s. Bette continued to diss IMO. The reference to “on or off the couch” was yet another jab. I never could stand Better Midler. She is classless, homely, talentless, and apparently now a total hypocrate and bitter. I doubt she does care what Arianna thinks or she wouldn’t have ever said it, but she sure cares what the public thinks and this person of the public right here (that would be me) thinks she sounds like a washed-up jealous joke. Sit down Bette! You’re tired!

  21. Grant says:

    The fact that Ariana referenced the flawless classic First Wives Club in her response to Bette just makes me love Ari even more.

  22. Dommy Dearest says:

    Bette is on point. Even her apology was well written shade.

  23. Frodo lives says:

    I feel like if Bette truly cared about the well-being, she could have private messaged her but she didn’t. She’s a rude jackass!

  24. Frodo lives says:

    I feel like if Bette truly cared about the well-being, she could have private messaged her but she didn’t. She’s a rude jackass! 😡

  25. Amy says:

    Ariana’s comment was pure verbal middle fingering, not sure where folks got restraint from.

    But good for her!

    I’m very tired of older women deciding to pick on younger women and name names because they are ‘reformed’ old whores or never were whores. Sometimes you need to judge to yourself rather than look stupid publicly.

  26. Kay V says:

    I think it’s Bette who’s being a media wh*re here. Why should a 68 yr old legend in her own time hurl an insult at a young relatively new performer? Why media coverage of course! What happens to these old stars a la Cher, Bette etc .? Do the feel obscurity creeping then grab a bottle of vodka & hit twitter? C’mon Bette, show a little class