Beyond the Pale: In Defense of Ariana Grande’s Astoundingly Dark Tan
The ‘Italian-American’ pop singer may actually have North African Ancestry, too.
“When did she become black?” That question from a puzzled fan was one of many tepid responses heating up the interwebs back on July 9, 2019, when the cover of Vogue featuring a photo of Ariana Grande with a strikingly dark tan was posted to Instagram by the fashion + lifestyle publication. The print version would begin to grace newsstands soon after.
Posed in the photo with her beloved Chihuahua-Beagle mix, Toulouse, Grande sits on a beach before a frothing white shoreline. Her svelte torso is hugged by the crinkled fabric of a little black sundress. A twirled shoulder strap straddles Grande’s lithe left tricep. Atop her naturally dark-n-curly tresses — accentuated by freshly brushed “baby hairs” — sits an absolutely ginormous black sun hat. With doe-like eyes, Grande looks into the camera of famed photographer Annie Leibovitz and gives it what Madonna once memorably called “good face.”
But the most notable and unexpectedly contentious aspect of Grande’s Vogue Magazine cover photo in the summer of 2019 was the singer’s dark, honey brown tan — which could possibly-maybe-almost qualify for the African-American cultural expression of “melanin…
