Ariana Grande belted an Aretha Franklin standard at the Queen of Soul’s homegoing in a black dress so short it got the social media choir going.
As former president Bill Clinton sat behind her with a big smile on his face, Grande appeared nervous as she made her way to the front of Greater Grace Temple, apparently unclear where she was supposed to stand for her performance of “(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman.”
She found her footing, though, and made it through. After Grande’s performance, Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, the officiant leading the service, brought the singer to the podium, where he cracked a joke about her name sounding like a Taco Bell menu item.
“I’ve got to apologize, because I have to brush up. My 28-year-old daughter told me, ‘You are old at 60,'” Ellis said. “When I saw Ariana Grande on the program, I thought that was a new something at Taco Bell.”
Grande laughed at his comment, hugged him and told the crowd, “I love you, Aretha” before leaving the podium.
On Twitter, Grande’s dress was criticized as too short for church.
“#ArianaGrande don’t know the below the knee rule for the pulpit in the black church. Somebody hand her a lap hanky and a choir robe. Bless her heart,” tweeted one, Tenisha Taylor Bell.
“Ariana Grande baby that’s not what you wear to a funeral,” another user tweeted, with someone else comparing her outfit to “how you look when you come straight to church after being out at the club.”
Grande also had her defenders, with some fans arguing in favor of her sartorial choices.
“If Ariana Grande’s dress makes anyone uncomfortable, I’d suggest you check that demon within yourself and not blame that young lady for YOUR perverted mind and or the perverted minds of others whom for whatever complicit reason you choose not to check instead,” read one pro-Grande tweet.
