Wicked star Ariana Grande's brother, Frankie, cried happy tears while watching Grande alongside Cynthia Erivo perform the opening number for the 97th Academy Awards.
The performance was a medley of songs from three adaptations of The Wizard of Oz.
Grande, 31, sang a soulful rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from the classic 1939 movie, while Erivo, 38, soared with her vocals on "Home" from the 1975 Broadway musical The Wiz.
The set concluded with the "Thank U, Next" pop star joining Erivo in singing "Defying Gravity" to reprise their characters from their screen adaptation of Broadway's Wicked.
Grande then gave her bestie the floor as Erivo channeled Elphaba once more to hit the climactic notes from the musical's empowering Act One finale.
Frankie, who is Grande's maternal half-brother, filmed a video at an Oscars home-viewing party on Sunday, showing snippets of the evening's opening number on a TV monitor and periodically cutting to selfie mode to show his emotional teary reactions.
The 42-year-old Broadway performer and producer of cabaret acts, including his one-man show, shared the video on X (formerly Twitter) and wrote:
"Well, that’s the gay superbowl. Best opening to an Oscar’s ever! Of all time!"
His caption was followed by a series of emojis representing a red stiletto, tears, a rainbow, and a broom.
The entire room erupted in cheers in response to Grande's Glinda character belting out "I hope you're happy" to Erivo's Elphaba before her epic battle cry that got the Academy Award audience rising to their feet for a standing-O.
The video concluded with Frankie turning the camera back on him and exclaiming:
"Are you f'king kidding me?!"
He certainly wasn't alone in his revelry over the triumphant number.
Wicked is a two-part film adaptation of the smash 2003 Broadway musical, loosely based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which in turn is inspired by the characters in L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that blew away audiences around the world.
It nabbed ten Academy Award nominations, including for Best Actress (Erivo), Best Supporting Actress (Grande), and Best Picture.
The commercially successful movie was a huge box office hit that made grown men cry.
But the musical movie ultimately took home only two awards: Best Costume Design for Paul Tazewell and Best Production Design for Lee Sandales and Nathan Crowley.
The second film, Wicked: For Good, is scheduled for a November 2025 release, which could give another opportunity for the stars to have a chance at scoring a repeat Oscar nod or maybe even a win.
No matter the outcome, big brother Grande will still be beaming with pride for l'il sis.
@GregAbbott_TX/X
