Meeting Ariana Grande, Then and Now
She then approached her fans without a smile – just an icy look as she toyed with her hair. She was surrounded by 8 to 10 assistants. Ariana stood by, with a blank stare, as the rules came fast and furiously from a staffer:
“You are not to present Ariana with any type of gift or anything. Give them to security and they will get them to her. You can take a selfie with her, but nothing else.”
SourceFull Backstory, more details about the meet and greet and praise for Britney after the cut
Meeting Ariana Grande, Then and Now.
(full story at source, here are good points)
After the bogus interview, Ariana was set to appear. First, she did an on-camera interview. We don’t know what it was about, but I’m wondering if she also faked that the meeting had already taken place. She then approached her fans without a smile – just an icy look as she toyed with her hair. She was surrounded by 8 to 10 assistants. Ariana stood by, with a blank stare, as the rules came fast and furiously from a staffer:
“You are not to present Ariana with any type of gift or anything. Give them to security and they will get them to her. You can take a selfie with her, but nothing else.”
Remember, these are not kids who interrupted Ariana during dinner at a restaurant, they are pre-screened contest winners who poured their hearts into their winning entries. The 16 year old boy had recorded a CD of beautiful violin cover versions of Ariana songs. It won the contest for him, and he wanted to present it to her.
It was taken away by security.
Ariana Grande, the superstar, then walked toward her three contest-winning fans.
She spent perhaps 15 seconds with each of them. That is not an exaggeration. They took an approved photo with her and that was it. No small talk. No banter. No “I can pretend I care a slight bit for you because you support me, you tweeted about me and my projects thousands of times, you buy my music, and you traveled so far, while paying for your own taxis, three days of meals, new outfits to meet me in, and federal and state taxes on this prize. Let me hear the one sentence you’ve always dreamed about telling me.”
Nothing. That was it. Don’t be fooled by the sweet smile in the photos below. Ariana gave that grin for each picture, but then it was gone again. She never bothered to even ask anyone their name. She didn’t inquire as to who the contest winners were, as opposed to their guests, or what they created to win the right to meet her. Shocked by all this, Jen, whom Ari had been so kind to in 2011, walked up and said “Ari, here’s a photo we took together in Vegas at the Titanic…”
Ms. Grande glanced at the photo on Jen’s phone and said, “Let’s redo that picture.” She said nothing else, so Jen retook the photo. No peace sign from Ari this time. Then Jen took out one of the drawings that won the contest for her. Kelly snapped a photo of her smiling little sister giving Ariana the drawing.
“Delete those pictures, please” was all Ariana said.
“Can I just keep the one of my sister showing you the drawing?” asked Kel.
Ariana turned to her security and ordered, “Make sure she deleted those.”
Then, Ariana Grande walked away from her prize-winning fans without even saying goodbye.
....
In 2003, Jen and Kel received an opportunity to meet a superstar even more famous than Ariana Grande. They met Britney Spears. Wanna know how that went?
Britney invited our two girls into her dressing room at MTV’s TRL. She spent between 12 and 15 minutes with JUST THEM and her assistant Felicia. Then Britney invited my wife and me to come in as well. We all took a bunch of pictures, from any angle, while Britney chatted with the girls, looked through pics of their memorabilia, happily personally accepted a gift bag they had brought for her, answered any questions they had, gave them each a signed copy of her CD (which was released that day), and personally made sure that Jen and Kel could watch the live taping of TRL in the studio, even though they were both too young according to MTV policy. Neither Britney, or any member of her staff, ever asked to see any of the pictures we took. In fact, her security guard remained OUTSIDE the entire time we spent with her.
That is a true superstar who loves her fans.