Madison Beer Reflects on Backlash After Claiming She Was Supposed to Be in Ariana Grande’s ‘Thank U, Next’ Video
The rising pop star's interaction with fans was turned into a viral meme.
Black News 
A harmless fan interaction turned into a viral meme for Madison Beer, and she opened up about the backlash she received when claiming she was supposed to make an appearance in Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next” music video in 2018.
While she’s in the midst of her Locket Tour, the pop star stopped Owen Thiele’s In Your Dreams podcast for the Friday (May 22) episode, during which she recalled being criticized and labeled a liar for simply saying Ariana wanted her to be in the Mean Girls-inspired visual, but she couldn’t make it due to scheduling conflicts.
“It really was that serious. But you have to realize that back then it was not received well,” she explained. “People were hating on me and ripping me apart for it and saying I was the cringiest person alive. Why would I lie about it?”
The 27-year-old continued: “The truth is, I was just overly excited about it. I was surrounded by fans who were being so sweet and supportive. ‘Thank U, Next’ had just come out and I thought I was spilling tea. I like, ‘Guys, I was supposed to be in the video.’ I didn’t know that it was just going to be this pivotal moment in my life that I could never come back from.”
What irritated the singer the most was that Beer continued to be accused of lying, which she couldn’t fathom doing.
“That felt so crazy that people were accusing my character of just making that up,” she added. “Then there was like, I was going to post proof. When I was younger, I was so mad that people thought I was lying.”
Eventually, Beer moved on and didn’t even feel the need to post proof to prove her point about the video cameo for Ari, which ended up being a lesson for her career going forward.
“It was kind of sad,” she admitted. “It was a good learning curve for me though, because I feel like I was able to be like, ‘It doesn’t really matter what people think.’ I never posted proof. I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to let go.'”
“Thank U, Next” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 2018. The music video would be released a few weeks later, at the end of the month on Nov. 30, and contained references to classic 2000s teen comedies such as Bring It On, Mean Girls, 13 Going on 30 and Legally Blonde.
Directed by Hannah Lux Davis, the visual saw Hollywood cameos from Jennifer Coolidge, Colleen Ballinger, Jonathan Bennett and even reality television mogul Kris Jenner.
Ari remains one of Madison Beer’s inspirations, and the “Bittersweet” singer had no issue giving the three-time Grammy winner flowers throughout the star’s career. While Beers missed out on the music video cameo, things still turned out all right for her.
She’s currently on the European leg of her Locket Tour, which has shows coming up in Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, London and Manchester. MB is set to then kick off the North American run in Austin on June 8. The trek comes in support of her 2026 Locket album, which was released in January and reached the Billboard 200′s top 10.
Watch the full interview with Madison Beer below. Talk about the “Thank U, Next” video controversy takes place just shy of the 10-minute mark.
