Ariana Grande says Gloria Estefan gave her key motivation when Ariana was just 4 years old

If Ariana Grande is an Oscar-nominated actress and Grammy-winning singer today, it’s may be partly due to Gloria Estefan. 

Speaking to Deadline about her life and career, Ari revealed that when she was just four years old, she and her family took a cruise vacation. “We went to karaoke and I sang, insanely — I was four, I don’t know why I was this brave — but I got up at karaoke and sang … the most tonally ignorant song choice I could ever make,” Ariana recalled. “‘My Heart Will Go On’ from Titanic … the last thing I want to hear when I’m on a ship!”

“It just so happens that Gloria Estefan was in the audience on this cruise, on a vacation with her family,” Ariana marveled. “And she sort of invited me over to say hello and my mom came with me, and she just said, ‘You keep singing, I never would have done that at your age. You’ve got a gift. Keep going.’ Isn’t that so sweet?”

In 2014, Gloria shared the same story with the New York Daily News.

“I literally went up to her and told her and her mom, ‘I don’t know if you plan on doing this, but this is what you need to be doing because you are an amazing singer,'” the pop legend recalled. However, Gloria recalls Ari being eight years old at the time, not four.