Ariana Grande urges entertainment companies to include mental health services and therapy in contracts
Ariana Grande has urged that entertainment companies include mental health services in artist contracts – see what she had to say below.
Appearing on the February 10 episode of the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, the singer-actor seemingly voiced support for Chappell Roan‘s recent plea at the 2025 Grammys that record labels take better care of their artists.
Grande got her start in acting as a teen on the Nickelodeon series Victorious and its spin-off Sam & Cat before turning her attention to music. Most recently, she’s co-lead the critically acclaimed film adaptation of Wicked and will be starring in its 2025 sequel Wicked: For Good.
Speaking to Maron on his podcast, Grande spoke about her start as a young actor and how she would’ve benefited from proper mental health services after dealing with negativity on a global scale.
She said: “It’s so important that these record labels, these studios, these TV studios, these big production companies make it a part of the contract when you sign on to do something that’s going to change your life in that way, on that scale. You need a therapist to be seeing several times a week.”
Grande went on to share that she thinks it should be on companies to take care of artists as they know the lives of someone can change with fame, especially as companies and labels promote and push them to get bigger.
“When these people are cast in these life-changing roles, or when they get that record deal, when they get that moment, that should be non-negotiable in the contract,” Grande continued. “Because to be an artist, you are a vulnerable person with your heart on your sleeve.”
Reflecting on her first taste of mass critique, Grande told Maron that “there was no limit” to the hate she received between her Nickelodeon features and her debut album ‘Yours Truly’ for her body image, her relationships and more: “I was 19 when all of that nonsense started happening to me, and it’s just a crazy piece of the puzzle. It’s something you work so hard to try and understand, and it will never make sense to me.
Ariana Grande’s comments come a week after Chappell Roan made headlines at the Grammys for calling out the entertainment industry and “demanded that labels in the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a liveable wage and health care, especially developing artists.”
Chappell Roan was criticised for her speech by Jeffrey Rabhan – a longtime music executive and former Chair of NYU’s Clive Davis Institute – who responded to her words in The Hollywood Reporter, calling her Grammys speech “misguided” and “uninformed” in a guest column.
Roan has since donated US$25,000 of her own money to organisations supporting artists, as have Noah Kahan and Charli XCX.
In a four-star review of Wicked, Nick Levine wrote for NME: “Wicked flags a little in the middle, but not enough to dampen a dramatic climax in which Elphaba and Glinda travel to Oz to meet the fabled Wonderful Wizard (Jeff Goldblum). He and Yeoh sell their brief musical numbers on twinkly charisma, but Erivo and Grande are both vocally extraordinary.”
The second film, Wicked: For Good, is set to be released on November 21 this year. It will feature a new original song that Schwartz has co-written with the film’s other lead star Cynthia Erivo.
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Surej Singh
NME
