Ariana Grande has hit out at the double standards she's faced after being criticised for her changing voice.

The 'Thank U, Next' hitmaker was mocked last month when she spoke in a lower octave before switching back to a higher pitch during an appearance on Penn Badgley's 'Podcrushed', but she's insisted a man wouldn't face such ridicule if they had gone method for a role.

Speaking about her role as Glinda in 'Wicked', she told Evan Ross Katz on his 'Shut Up Evan' podcast: “I did just spend a long time playing a character every single day and training my voice to do different things.

"The voice is in the body, it’s an instrument, and muscle memory is a real thing. That’s a normal thing for people who, it’s their job to transform.

“You see male actors — sure, people make jokes here and there as well about everybody who experiences something like this — but it’s always after the fact that they’re like, ‘Oh, wow, how dedicated to his craft. What an amazing transformation! He’s a brilliant performer!'

“And God forbid I sneeze like Glinda.

“I had a job to do. People change and habits happen. It’s a strange thing to be under such a microscope.”

Evan, who has been friends with Ariana for several years, agreed and told listeners "both" tones are her real voice and it all depends on circumstances such as how intense her vocal regime is and what she is working on as to how she sounds at the time.

And the presenter argued many people don't understand what goes into being a professional singer or have a sense of "vocal literacy".

Ariana agreed: "[It's] a full-time commitment and it's a lifestyle; it's not something you can f** around with."

Elsewhere on the podcast, the 31-year-old singer-and-actress explained she tries not to react to public opinion on matters such as her divorce from Dalton Gomez and subsequent romance with 'Wicked' co-star Ethan Slater because she'd rather protect her "peace and privacy".

Without directly referencing the backlash her relationship with Ethan triggered, she said: “There’s still a lot of misperceptions about everything out there.

“I’ve sent you so many drafts of things like, ‘I want to say this so badly!’

"I always sleep on it and I always come back around to protecting and not taking that bait, because what I have discovered is that protecting my peace and my privacy and the actual details … sometimes when it would be addressing something, you would actually be exposing more of your actual real life.”