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By Matt Keeley
Night Editor
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Though Benedict Cumberbatch had high praise for Ariana Grande, he admitted that he sometimes had trouble understanding what she was singing.
Appearing on BBC Radio 1's All Day Breakfast program hosted by Greg James, Cumberbatch was there to promote the new film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The program has a popular segment, "Unpopular Opinions," where listeners call in with their own beliefs that they don't think are shared by many others.
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Some of the unpopular opinions Cumberbatch listened to included a man who admits that he likes the smell of cow manure, a woman who likes eating frozen french fries without cooking them and a man who thought people who refuse to eat bread crust "are some of society's weakest links."
But one of the most fun was when a caller, Alex, said that she wasn't able to understand the lyrics of Grande's songs, due to her singing style. Though Cumberbatch said that she was an "extraordinary, extraordinary vocal artist," and that he was a "huge, huge fan," he admitted that he had a similar problem.
"I feel my 45 years sometimes when i'm listening to a song going, 'Yeah, I wonder if there's a lyric sheet I can get online, because I can't understand a word," Cumberbatch laughed.
Alex admitted that Grande was talented, saying, "She can hold a note, but she can't really—you can't understand what she's saying."
"She can hold a note or two—very English appraisal of a raw super talent, 'She can hold a note," he joked.
...
Then the host suggested a game where he'd play a bit of a song and Cumberbatch would have to guess what she sang. First, James played a clip of her duet with Iggy Azalea, "Problem," taken from the pre-chorus.
"Something about a cat in an elevator? She releases she's a love cat—she suddenly realizes she's a love cat stuck in an elevator, and she goes 'Wauugh!' because she's scared," Cumberbatch offered.
"Not quite. 'I should be wiser / and realize that I've got,'" James corrected.
Next was a clip from "Positions," taken from the chorus of the song.
"Poking through holes?" he guessed.
"Nearly, nearly, 'I'm in the Olympics / I'm jumping through hoops," James said. "It's a great unpopular opinion, because I've never realized I didn't know either!"
"Hold on to your opinion, I think it's a good one," Cumberbatch agreed.
The final clip was a brief one from "Breathin'."
"Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, free love," Cumberbatch ventured, but again, he was wrong—Grande was singing the title of the song.
"She's just explaining what she's doing," James said.
"She can hold a note," Cumberbatch added.
Grande's vocal style has been criticized before, with a number of YouTube videos attempting to explain her enunciation. In a 2015 interview with Jimmy Fallon, Grande joked about her pronunciation.
"I'm working on the pronunciation thing. It's a recurring problem," she said.
She also cracked a joke about it while appearing as a coach on The Voice last year. Guest Kristin Chenoweth suggested the contestants work on their enunciation.
"I should not speak about enunciation because when I'm singing pop music it sounds like another language," Grande joked.
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