Ariana Grande slams her “degrading” TikTok lookalikes

Pop sensation Ariana Grande is one of this generation’s most popular music artists — so much so that she’s even got a viral copycat on TikTok, but it doesn’t look like she’s too fond of the copycat’s videos.

TikTok creator Paige Niemann went viral in late 2019 for a video where she dressed up as Ariana Grande, nearly becoming the spitting image of the singer with the same high ponytail, makeup, and mannerisms.

That’s not all; Niemann combined her makeover with audio from Grande’s performance as Cat Valentine in Nickelodeon show ‘Victorious,’ leading to a seriously uncanny resemblance of the pop star that took the internet by storm.

While months have passed since the viral video was released, it doesn’t look like the buzz around the subject is easing off, with Grande giving a pointed reply to filmmaker Jordan Firstman.

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In a video, Firstman hit out at content creators for making memes of moments that artists worked hard to create, giving them a spin that might undermine their efforts for a few laughs online.

“If we took a moment from that and we kind of like, re-contextualize it… we put a completely arbitrary meaning on to the thing the artist loves so much, [is] kind of like degrading its entire value,” Firstman explained.

Grande commented on his thoughts in a now-deleted post via her Instagram story, where she seemed to agree with his stance and even compared it to her viral TikTok impersonator.

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“Can this please also double as your impression of the ponytail TikTok girls who think that doing the Cat Valentine voice and wearing winged eyeliner and a sweatshirt is doing a good impersonation of me?” she wrote.

“‘Cause that’s really how it feels… ‘degrading its entire value’ I screamed.”

Needless to say, it doesn’t seem like Grande is cool with people impersonating her beloved character from Nickelodeon fame — having spoken out about it when TikTok initially went viral in November 2019.

Niemann has since replied to Grande’s thoughts on her lookalike videos, during a live stream as reported by BuzzFeed.

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“I’m used to Ariana shading me, so it’s whatever,” she admitted. “I’m just here to entertain people. It’s not how I am in real life. It’s kind of why I’m not a fan of her anymore, honestly.”

With a slew of top TikTok stars having also experienced their own copycats in the past month, Grande’s message couldn’t come at a more appropriate time, with names like Charli D’Amelio and Nessa Barret likewise dealing with negative drama due to lookalikes.