- Grande, then 5 years old, attended the Panthers' first game at their new arena in 1998.
- She even got to ride the Zamboni.
Ariana Grande was seen at the NHL's Stanley Cup Finals Monday night as the Florida Panthers played the Edmonton Oilers at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida.
But did you know the pop star, originally from Boca Raton, Florida, was hit by a puck — twice! — when she was younger, while rooting for South Florida's hockey team?
In 1998, Grande, then 5 and known as Ariana Grande-Butera, was attending the Florida Panthers' first game at their new arena, then-called the BankAtlantic Center, when she was hit in the left wrist by a puck fired by an unidentified Tampa Bay Lightning player, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Her mother told the Sentinel that her daughter also was hit by a puck (that time in the right wrist) during a game the previous year.
Also, Grande rode the Zamboni at the Panthers' first game at the new arena.
On Monday night, Grande was seen rooting for the home team during Game 2 of the series, just as she did in the series opener.
Other celebrities, such as DJ Khaled and former longtime Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning also were seen at the arena.
Good for Panthers fans, Florida won 4-1, taking a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, which now goes to Edmonton.
Ariana Grande got her start to fame in South Florida
People outside of South Florida may not know that Grande was born and grew up in Boca Raton.
As The Palm Beach Post reported in 2017, Dennis Lambert was Grande's neighbor in Boca. He knew her since she was 12 and she was his daughter's lifelong friend.
After Grange became famous, Lambert had the “surreal” experience of sitting in a darkened arena alongside “20,000 people all completely crazy” for his former neighbor.
Lambert, a Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer, admits that it really wasn’t much of a surprise.Ariana Grandealways seemed destined to do just that.
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“I felt, and everyone in my family felt, she was going to be a star,” he says of Grande, whose path from Boca children’s theater to Nickelodeon to hit singles like “Problem” and “The Way” seemed a sure thing. “If not her, who? She was always an amazing little talent in person. She knows how to deliver.”
Lambert said “she’s got a great show business head and a great appreciation for talents that came before her.”
Ariana Grande's early start at the former Little Palm Theatre in Boca Raton
He first met Grande about 2007 when his daughter Misha, who was then like Ariana about “11 or 12 years old,” became involved with the former Little Palm Theatre in Boca Raton, a longtime children’s troupe that Grande’s mother and grandfather took over after it had fallen on hard financial times. Right away, Lambert, who produced Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy” and co-wrote the Four Tops’ “Ain’t No Woman,” knew he was hearing someone special.
“She was an amazing singer,” he remembers. “She could sing like Mariah Carey even back then, with that wonderful head voice, and the ability to mimic or copy all the singers she admired. She could copy all their licks, before she got her own sense of what to do.”
Ariana Grande was part of a children's troupe that sang at charity events
After Little Palm Theatre closed, Grande’s mother, Joan formed “a little children’s troupe” called Kids Who Care, which included Ariana, Misha Lambert, and Grande’s future Broadway co-star Aaron Simon Gross. The group of about eight kids sang at charity events and “black tie affairs in an effort to raise money, get exposure and be a part of a philanthropic sense of giving something back,” remembers Lambert.
By the time Kids Who Care ended, it was apparent that little Ariana, whose big voice had gotten even better, was intended for more than Boca children’s theater. Lambert says that as a family friend he never really attempted to get involved with her professionally or offer much advice, as her mother seemed to be “navigating” her fledgling career quite well. But he did give them one bit of caution — look beyond Boca.
“The only advice I ever remember giving her mother was to don’t fall for the idea that someone in your backyard was going to be the right fit, because they’re not probably gonna be the right person, and that includes me,” he says. “Boca has a lot of people with a pedigree, most of whom were older, and I didn’t think any of those people were the right (ones) for her, as talented as they may be.”
Grande, around 14 years old, was cast in the Broadway musical "13"
The Grandes took that advice, and at around the age of 14, Ariana, along with former “Kids Who Care” co-star Gross, was cast in the Broadway musical “13.” And that’s when “things started to happen,” with that opportunity leading to exposure to casting directors and auditions, one of which was for Nickelodeon. Soon, the tiny powerhouse was cast on the TV series “Victorious” and then her own show “Sam and Cat.”
Lambert says Grande took advantage of then-relatively new vehicles for exposure like Facebook and Instagram to grow her fame. Since then, her star has risen, just like Lambert says he always knew it would. Their careers have even intersected in delightfully weird ways, like in 2015 when he was awarded a gold record for the sample of his Four Tops hit “Ain’t No Woman” that was used on a track by rapper Big Sean, who at the time was dating Grande.
“I said ‘I just got an award for working with Big Sean!’ and she said ‘Big Sean’s my boyfriend!,’” he said at the time.
Ariana Grande's doughnut-gate
Grande found herself the subject of unwanted attention in 2015 after a doughnut shop security footage captured her blurting out “I hate Americans” and licking a pastry, an act she apologized for.
“Unfortunately there was a camera in there,” Lambert says. “She’s a bright girl. She should have known better. I was disappointed, but I think she’ll learn from that. It’ll blow over. It wasn’t the worst thing that anybody ever said.”
