Keke Palmer’s Ariana Grande impersonation goes viral: “She ate that”

29 November, 2024

Keke Palmer and Ariana Grande

A clip of Keke Palmer impersonating Ariana Grande has gone viral.

The actress and singer recalled attending the Wicked star’s 16th birthday party on her podcast Baby, This Is Keke Palmer.

At the time Palmer said she was amazed because Patti LaBelle performed and joined Grande onstage.

She said: “When I went to her 16th birthday party, huge birthday party, very dramatic, girl was on stage singing with Patti LaBelle.”

Palmer then did a perfect impression of the singer introducing LaBelle on the night: “Ladies and gentlemen, Patti LaBelle.”

She added: “Girl you’re 16 why is Patti LaBele performing at your goddamn birthday party?”

Her impression drew a host of responses in the comment section with one fan writing: “She ate that impression.”

Another added: “SHE SOUNDED JUST LIKE HER LMFAOOO.”

One also wrote: “Keke deserves an Oscar for this impersonation alone.”

It comes after Palmer also recently did an impression of Nicki Minaj on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Sharing an anecdote about how she met the ‘Pink Friday 2’ rapper at this year’s Met Gala, Palmer mimicked Minaj’s New York accent when recalling what she said to her. “Ah, ah, hold on. You, I need to talk to you,” Palmer began to impersonate Nicki – admitting she thought the rapper was going to tell her off instead of giving her some advice.

Palmer continued (as Minaj): “Look, I don’t read the press. I don’t know everything that’s going on, but I just want to tell you: nobody knows what it’s like when we turn off the lights and we gotta be with ourselves. So, you do whatever you need to do to be good with you.”

Minaj sarcastically later responded to Palmer’s impersonation, questioning: “Why would she even tell that story? Doesn’t she know that could mess up the whole ‘bad guy’ thing?

“Let’s see if she still laughin’ when she get hit [with] that cease & desist chi. [Signed] the bad guy Chun-Ki…ki…”

Ariana Grande at the ‘Wicked: Part One’ premiere at The Royal Festival Hall on November 18, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)

Elsewhere, Wicked recently pulled in a combined $270million (£214.6milion) in worldwide ticket sales last weekend. It was the third-biggest opening weekend of the year, behind Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2. It was also a record for a Broadway musical adaptation.

Wicked hit cinemas in the UK and US on November 22, and it’s predicted by cinema bosses to be the biggest film of the year.

Jon M. Chu’s film debuted with $114million (£90.6million) domestically and $164.2million (£130.5million) globally for Universal Pictures, according to studio estimates.

Reviewing the movie, which stars Grande and Cynthia Erivo and is an adaptation of the stage musical which tells the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, NME awarded it four stars and said the “hit musical makes a gravity-defying leap to the big screen”.

“Funny, colourful and full of empathy for outsiders, this film really is the Shiz,” it added.

Wicked Part Two is slated for a cinema release on November 21, 2025, and you can check out everything we know about it so far, here.

The post Keke Palmer’s Ariana Grande impersonation goes viral: “She ate that” appeared first on NME.