Their kiss set Twitter ablaze. Now, Ariana Grande is spilling the secrets on how her Justin Bieber selfie came about.
Speaking to MTV News in an All Access interview, the 20-year-old “The Way” songstress revealed she hadn’t wanted to post the photo in the first place, because of an inkling it would cause drama.
And didn’t it just?
Grande supported Justin for the last three stops on the North American leg of his Believe tour and it was backstage at the Tampa, Florida show that their now infamous kiss went down.
Taking a walk through the steps before her moment with the teen superstar, Grande told MTV:
“I went to meet and greet with my grandparents, because my nonna has a massive crush on Justin Bieber, so I went and our fans… I think they trended #JustinandArianaSelfie or something like that. ”
She added: “So I was like, ‘We have to do this,’ and Justin was like, ‘Yeah, let’s take a picture.’ So, I took my phone and I went like this [gestures selfie] and I was just smiling, and he kissed me on the cheek. I didn’t know what to do. I just walked out of the room. I got shy.”
However, it seems the Canadian was fairly insistent the selfie should be posted to social media sites.
“Then Scooter [Braun, who is Ariana’s and Bieber’s manager] came after me and was like, ‘Justin says you have to post that picture,’” Grande recalls.”I was like, ‘I will not.’ And he was like, ‘He says you have to post that picture.’ And I said, ‘I can’t,’ and he asked why not and I was like ‘because I don’t want the drama that’s going to come with it.’”
As it turns out, Ariana’s female intuition was right on the money.
“Then, Justin tweeted me, ‘Post that pic,’” Ariana went on. “So, I just did it, but everyone was like, ‘Oh my gosh a kiss on the cheek. I’m like, can you not?’ Come on!”
“You’re crazy and nonna says thank you, she loves you,” read the picture caption she tweeted to Bieber.
Within three hours of posting the kiss snap, it was retweeted 27,300 times and unleashed a flood of online comment — much of it hostile — from fans of Bieber, Selena Gomez , and Grande.
After deleting the picture, Ariana wrote , “Everyone, girls are allowed to be friends with guys. I’m a lady. Chill out.”
Ironically, it’s since been reported the Victorious actress has split up with her boyfriend Jai Brooks from The Janoskians, prompting an inevitable supportive twitter trending topic.
She has since moved on from fan-related drama and kicked off her The Listening Sessions tour to rave reviews .
Ahead of the September 3 release of her album Yours Truly, Grande has also released the music video for her single with The Wanted’s Nathan Sykes “Almost Is Never Enough.”
One question: Why did Bieber want Ariana to post that picture so badly?
Add your voice in comments.