Ariana Grande's 'The Light Is Coming' Sample Is Taken From The CNN Archives

The same speech was repeated in another of Pharrell Williams' recent productions.

Ariana Grande’s new single has left a number of fans scratching their heads, over a curious sample repeated throughout the track.

First teased earlier this month, Ariana debuted the Nicki Minaj collaboration ‘The Light Is Coming’ on Tuesday night and it’s the second single to be lifted from her upcoming album, ‘Sweetener’.

The track has so far proved divisive among Ariana fans, not least because of a repeated sample of speech that echoes throughout the song, with a man is heard shouting: “You wouldn’t let anybody speak!”

Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande
Christopher Polk via Getty Images

As fans attempted to solve the mystery over exactly where the speech came from, MTV reporter Madeline Roth eventually got to the bottom of it, tweeting out a link to the video from which the sample is lifted.

She wrote: “The sample… appears to be from a CNN archive clip of a man shouting at Sen. Arlen Specter at a Pennsylvania town hall meeting in 2009.”

As Madeline pointed out, a sample of the same speech was also used in the NERD and Rihanna collaboration ‘Lemon’, released last year.

Both ‘Lemon’ and ‘The Light Is Coming’ were produced by Pharrell Williams, though his reason for choosing the sample remains a mystery.

HuffPost UK has reached out to a representative for Pharrell for comment.

‘The Light Is Coming’ follows lead single ‘No Tears Left To Cry’ as the latest cut taken from Ariana’s new album, slated for release later this summer.

The album will also feature an interlude called ‘Pete’, named after her new beau, ‘Saturday Night Live’ comedian Pete Davidson.

Earlier this week, Ariana hit back at one fan who commented that the inclusion of the song was a sign things might be moving too fast with Pete, insisting: “The truth is... I been the fuck thru it and life’s too short to be cryptic n shit about something as beautiful as this love I’m in.”

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