Thundercat and Ariana Grande teamed up for a performance of the former’s 2015 hit ‘Them Changes’ during the first day of the Adult Swim Music Festival.

The pair performed with Thundercat’s band against a background of typical Adult Swim animation, with Grande singing backing vocals and the whole second verse. They see each other off at the end of the song with a COVID-safe foot tap.

Grande covered the song back in 2018 for a BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge session, calling it her “favourite song of the past year and a half”. In a new press statement, Thundercat noted their connection: “It feels like Ariana and I are forever connected through Mac [Miller], and this is part of the healing process.”

Watch the unlikely performance below.

Grande recently released her sixth studio album, ‘Positions’. In a three-star review, NME wrote that “as an introduction to the next era of Grande’s career, it’s solid, but you can’t help but feel it’s missing some of her trademark sparkle”.

Thundercat released his latest album, ‘It Is What It Is’, in February. In a four-star review of that record, NME described it as a “heavy rumination on life, death and healing”.

In August, the bassist revealed he recorded a whole album with his late friend, rapper and collaborator Mac Miller, but said “everything isn’t meant to be put out like that”.