Elizabeth Gillies awestruck by ‘Victorious’ co-star Ariana Grande’s tour: ‘Felt like watching a movie’
ATLANTA, GEORGIA: Actress and singer Elizabeth Gillies shared a heartfelt tribute to Ariana Grande after attending ‘The Eternal Sunshine Tour’, which supports her sixth and seventh studio albums, ‘Positions’ and ‘Eternal Sunshine’. Gillies said the experience felt deeply immersive and described the show as emotionally overwhelming and visually striking.
Sharing a carousel of photos from the event on Instagram, she reflected on their nearly two-decade friendship and celebrated Grande’s journey as an artist. The duo first shared the screen as series regulars on the Nickelodeon show ‘Victorious’ from 2010 to 2013.
Elizabeth Gillies praises Ariana Grande’s immersive tour performance
Gillies took to Instagram to share photos from the concert and reflected on the first time she discovered Grande’s talent after they were cast together as teenagers. She wrote, “Ohhhh, Ari. When we first met, I looked you up on YouTube to see if you had any singing videos because we’d just been cast in a show together."
She continued, "I found a video of you singing and using your looping machine to cover India Arie’s “There’s Hope” and remember thinking it was the coolest thing in the world. This week, almost 20 years later, on your sold out tour, I got to watch you do the same thing (after gently and successfully silencing a room full of tens of thousands of people so the loop would come out clean) and it was remarkable."
She further said, "You’ve always been a visionary who stayed true to herself and poured herself completely into her art and this tour is no exception. It’s spectacular, visually stunning, deeply immersive and made me feel like I was watching a movie."
Gillies concluded, "It also made me feel like I was watching an artist at the top of her game. I’ll never understand how that voice comes out of you so perfectly and effortlessly every night but it definitely does. You were born to do this and nobody does it like you. Nobody could. So proud of you, my ding. Love you.. What a journey and what a special night.”
Grande responded in the comments, writing, “my sweet, my dearest, my dingus, my friend, i love you so much always, oh my goodness liz i am sobbing at this.”
Elizabeth Gillies reflects on their friendship and shared history with Ariana Grande
The pair first met as young teenagers, made their Broadway debuts together in ‘13: The Musical,’ and later starred alongside one another on ‘Victorious.’ Their friendship has remained strong over the years, with both continuing to support each other's careers.
Following the release of the docuseries ‘Quiet on Set,’ Gillies revealed in an interview with Variety that she and Grande revisited their experiences from their Nickelodeon days together. “I certainly reevaluated my experience with Ariana over FaceTime,” she said.
She continued, “We watched it together, and then we got together later that week or the next week, and we sort of broke the whole thing down and talked about it, and reprocessed everything together.”
“There was a lot to go through.”
The actress continued, “It’s tricky when you look back on something incredibly positively, and then you learn a lot of information and also revisit things as an adult through a new lens that reframe the memories in your mind a little bit, or cloud them, or taint them — maybe rightfully so.”
Gillies also spoke about the importance of having her castmates during that period, saying, “I’m very lucky I have such a close relationship with my cast — and with Ari — and that we were all able to do that together, because we definitely leaned on each other, talked amongst each other and checked in with each other.”
