Global pop star Ariana Grande faced an unexpected situation during the premiere of her new film Wicked: For Good in Singapore. The event took place on November 13 at Universal Studios Singapore, where Grande, who plays Glinda, was walking the Yellow Brick Road red carpet alongside Michelle Yeoh, Cynthia Erivo, and Jeff Goldblum. During the walk, a male attendee wearing a white shirt and shorts with long blue-dyed black hair suddenly approached her, wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her close.
Grande visibly struggled to pull away from the unexpected physical contact. Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba, immediately intervened by stepping between them and shouting at the man, while security personnel rushed in to separate him from Grande. In the aftermath, Grande appeared visibly shaken and was seen taking deep breaths as Erivo and Michelle Yeoh comforted her.
The man was identified as Johnson Wen, known online as Pyjama Man. Wen later uploaded a video of the incident on his social media account, thanking Grande for letting him jump onto the yellow carpet with her. He has a history of crashing celebrity events; in June he jumped on stage during a Katy Perry performance, and in August he was stopped by security at a concert for The Weeknd.
Grande has previously shared that she struggles with PTSD following the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing at her concert, which killed 22 people, making this latest incident even more distressing. Wicked: For Good explores the friendship between Elphaba, the misunderstood wicked witch, and Glinda, the good witch, as they navigate diverging destinies and discover what true friendship means. The film is scheduled to open in theaters on November 19.
