How old was Ariana Grande when she sang National Anthem at a Florida Panthers hockey game?

Ariana Grande might've started her music career as a teenager, but her first singing gig took place years before that. In January 2002, when the singer-songwriter was only eight, she sang the US national anthem - The Star-Spangled Banner - in an ice hockey game in Florida. The game was a home outing for the Florida Panthers against the Chicago Blackhawks on January 16.

Soon after the performance, Grande's path deviated from music to theatre, as she joined the Fort Lauderdale Children's Theatre, where she began acting in renowned musical productions like Annie, Beauty and the Beast, and The Wizard of Oz.

Ariana Grande's experience in musicals made way for her role in the Broadway musical show - 13 - when she was 15. It was followed by her acting gigs on Nickelodeon's Victorious, the conclusion of which eventually led Ariana to launch her debut studio album.

---

Ariana Grande reacted to watching her "first big gig" at 8 on the Jimmy Fallon Show

In November 2021, Ariana Grande appeared as a guest on Jimmy Fallon's The Tonight Show, where the two talked about the Side to Side singer's upcoming projects, both in music and in acting.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she joined the show digitally from her home. At one point in the show, Fallon started the subject of a certain clip he had obtained of Grande's "first big gig". As the video clip started playing on screen, the Bang Bang singer was taken aback:

"Oh my gosh, are we going here?"

As the clip played on, revealing a cheeky eight-year-old Ariana singing the national anthem in a darkened arena, Fallon gushed, saying:

"That is a star right there," to which she replied with a long "whooooaaaa!"

Before the clip was played, Fallon and Grande were talking about acting, when the host asked her about an upcoming project she was cast in.

It was a political satire comedy film by Adam McKay - whom Ariana Grande admitted to have admired for a long time - set to release in December 2021. When Fallon asked her about her character in Don't Look Up, Ariana Grande said:

"I play Riley Bina, who is this aloof and somewhat unaware pop star whose relationship with DJ Cello, played by the amazing Kid Cudi - The news about their relationship fluctuating sort of eclipses the news of the Earth coming to an end, which is great."

Elsewhere on the interview, Jimmy brought up a story he had heard about Ariana calling Nickelodeon when she was four, asking her to elaborate on it. This was the Side to Side singer's response to it:

"I have this weird manifesting gift, I think. When I was 4 years old, I did 411. I got through somehow by some miracle, I got through.

"And they were like, 'Hey! Universal Studios Orlando,' and I said, 'Hi, I would like to audition to be on All That or The Amanda Show. Your pick. You tell me. It's up to you, but I would love to be on either or.' And they were like, 'How old are you?' And I was like, 'Don't worry about it.'"

---

2024 is going to be a big year for Ariana Grande

It has been an important 2024 for Ariana Grande. Earlier this year - in March - the singer-songwriter released her seventh studio album, Eternal Sunshine. The album's title was inspired by Jim Carrey's 2004 movie - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Grande revealed in a 2024 Apple Music interview that she's "a massive Jim Carrey fan," revealing how she was quite young when she first watched the movie. The actress said:

“I don’t know if you know this, but my first screen name was JimCarreyFan42. It’s always been a favorite of mine.”

Meanwhile, Ariana Grande's long-awaited musical adaptation of Wicked - starring Cynthia Erivo alongside her, has been announced to released on Thanksgiving this year.

Ariana opened up about playing Glinda in the musical on the Zach Sang Show:

"Everything about me, I had to deconstruct to prove to them I could handle taking on this other person. I had to completely erase popstar Ari, the person they know so well, because it's even harder to believe someone as someone else when you're so branded as one thing."

It's also announced that the movie would be the first installation of the series, with the second one slated for November 2025.