Known baby Ariana Grande often seems less than comfortable in a performance setting—she dances stiffly in perpetual Halloween costume, like a stage mom’s counting her in from the wings—but this video, via Refinery 29, has her at perfect ease: white sequins, a grand piano, and the one part of performance she does take obvious pleasure in, which is her self-mesmerized phenomenon of a voice.
The footage is from a stop on her “Honeymoon Tour” (LOL), in which Baby Grand nervously brings songwriter David Foster to the stage to accompany her on “I Have Nothing,” which Foster co-wrote with his wife at the time. She calls it her “go-to song to sing… anywhere,” and the two of them proceed to do Whitney Houston proud: the run-up to Ariana’s first key change around 4:00 is particularly enjoyable, and I also recommend watching Foster absolutely loving life as she goes in for the second one at 4:35.
