Alongside her illustrious acting career, Kristin Chenoweth has maintained a successful music career as well. In fact, she has really thrived in that area over the past decade or so: Each of her previous four albums made it onto the Billboard 200 chart, with each one charting higher than the one before it. She has a new album out today (For The Girls), and it wouldn’t be surprising to see it set new personal chart bests for Chenoweth considering that Ariana Grande features on a song.
The two starred together in the TV musical specials A Very Wicked Halloween and Hairspray Live!, and now Grande has jumped on Chenoweth’s cover of “You Don’t Own Me,” which was first recorded by Lesley Gore in 1963. Their recording maintains an appropriate throwback sound, and sees Grande singing in a lower register than she usually does.
Grande shared the track and wrote, “i have always loved you and i always will @kchenoweth congratulations on your new album and thank you from the bottom of my heart for having me be a part ! i truly can’t put into words how much it means to me ! i truly can’t believe this is even real.” To that, Chenoweth responded, “You are my baby and i love you. I couldn’t be more proud of you. Thank you for blessing the works with your gift. And for being on my record. I love you very much.”
Cheneweth spoke more about working with Grande on the song in a recent Parade interview, saying, “I knew I wanted to pay homage to Lesley Gore and I was proud of Ariana that she knew it. She was like one of my babies and I watched her grow up! And I thought, Lesley Gore, she’s had a tough life. Not only does Ariana need to sing it, she should play Lesley Gore. She would be perfect for it!”
Listen to “You Don’t Own Me” above.
For The Girls is out now via Concord Records. Get it here.
