Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo Didn’t Get Holding Space Meme

Sometimes words have meaning. Other times they’re just things said in awkward moments that create new life for themselves. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were just as confused as we were during the now-memed “Holding space for ‘Defying Gravity’” interview. “I didn’t know what any part of it meant,” Grande said to Variety. “I didn’t understand the first sentence, and then I definitely didn’t understand how [Erivo] responded. And I just wanted to be there. Because I knew something big was happening, and I didn’t know how to be there.” In the original interview Out magazine’s Tracy Gilchrist told the two Wicked stars that “people are taking the lyrics of ‘Defying Gravity’ and really holding space with that and feeling power in that” after the election outcome.

Erivo, who felt very moved in the moment, held her hand to her chest and said she had “no idea” that was happening as Grande grabbed her index finger (“I’m going to grab this, because she looks like you might need something. I don’t know what the tapping was about.”) Gilchrist anxiously doubled down and clarified that she is in “queer media,” and the space holding was happening, presumably in her circle of friends. “I was surprised, because I had no idea. I hadn’t been looking that much,” Erivo explained looking back on her reaction. “I honestly didn’t know what that meant — am I also in queer media, maybe?” It seems like even two weeks later, they’re all still trying to figure out what exactly happened.