Oprah Winfrey Recreates Viral Wicked Finger-Holding Moment with Cynthia Erivo at 2025 Tony Awards

Published: June 9, 2025

Oprah Winfrey and Cynthia Erivo recreated the viral "holding space" moment from Erivo and Ariana Grande's Wicked press tour at the 2025 Tony Awards on Sunday, June 8.

The duo gave a nod to Erivo and Grande's viral meme before Erivo emerged onstage to kick off her hosting duties at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Oprah's Pep Talk

Erivo, 38, began the show with a sequence that showed her emerging from her dressing room on her way to the stage to host, but was accosted by several people giving her advice on how to stage her opening number. The final person Erivo ran into before her big entrance was none other than Oprah Winfrey, 71, who gave her a useful pep talk.

"What do you do when everyone is telling you what you need to do?" Erivo asked Winfrey, who replied, "Forget about them, babe! The only thing you need to do is just be yourself."

The two women then smiled knowingly after Winfrey stuck out her right index finger, which Erivo grasped - a cheeky nod to the "holding space" moment between Erivo and Grande that went viral last fall.

In the original interview that went viral in November 2024, Out journalist Tracy Gilchrist told Erivo and Grande, 31, that the LGBTQ+ community was connecting with and "holding space with" the lyrics of "Defying Gravity."

Grande recalled of the interview to Variety, "[Gilchrist] said something that meant something to her, then it meant something totally different to [Erivo], and then she tried to kind of get somewhere else. I remember in the moment asking myself, 'Am I okay? Did I not hear something?' ... because she looks like she was about to cry again."

The Viral Moment

Grande then shared that she decided to grab Erivo's finger at that moment "because I [thought] you might need something."

"And I don't know what the tapping was about," Grande continued, as Erivo jokingly added, "Tension, tension."

Grande then reflected on all the memes about the interview that were shared on social media, stating that they were "so beautiful."

"I feel really relieved that the world had the same experience with this moment that I did, because I felt like, 'Oh I'm not broken.' The best thing to is to really hold space with that," she joked.

See PEOPLE's full coverage of the 78th annual Tony Awards at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, airing now on CBS and Paramount+.

Oprah's Pep Talk

The Viral Moment

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