Grande Performs 'Bang Bang' During The 42nd American Music Awards
Ariana Grande performs "Bang Bang" during the 42nd American Music Awards in Los Angeles, California November 23, 2014. Reuters/Mario Anzuoni

Ariana Grande looks ridiculous with her silly high voice, Bette Midler said. The Divine Miss M has a lot of things to say about the pint-sized young singer, saying Ariana relies too much on the mantra “sex sells.”

The 68-year-old multi-award-winning actress/singer is in the UK to promote her first tour in 35 years and her new album “It’s the Girls.” In an interview with the Telegraph, Bette has let known her feelings for the “terrible” pornification of today’s pop music, and Ariana’s name immediately popped up.

“It’s terrible! It’s always surprising to see someone like Ariana Grande with that silly high voice, a very wholesome voice, slithering around on a couch, looking so ridiculous. I mean, it’s silly beyond belief and I don’t know who’s telling her to do it. I wish they’d stop. But it’s not my business, I’m not her mother. Or her manager. Maybe they tell them that’s what you’ve got to do. Sex sells. Sex has always sold,” she said.

She continued when asked if sex sells more now, “Well whatever strictures there were have fallen apart. And now it’s whatever you feel like doing you can do. I mean, apparently people really like to pretend they’re having sex. They really like to slap each other’s butts. I mean, don’t ask me. It’s beyond me. I’m too old. I don’t know what the end game is going to be. I don’t know where you go from all that sex in your twenties. I don’t know how you sustain it.”

Her advice for a young woman who wish to make it in show business? “Trust your talent. You don’t have to make a whore out of yourself to get ahead. You really don’t.”

Apart from Ariana, Bette also appeared not to have high opinion of the Spice Girls as well. Her album “It’s the Girls” is a compilation of the girl bands of her youth, but there’s just one modern song by a girl group that made it through, “Waterfalls” by TLC. Explaining her decision to use the song, she said she couldn’t think of a girl group with modern enough song that is as “meaningful” as TLC’s “Waterfalls.”

“I couldn’t find one. I mean, who are you talking about? The Spice Girls?” Bette, according to the interviewer, looks “aghast” with the suggestion of the UK girl band. “I like Destiny’s Child. I think that was the last great girl band there was.”

“It’s the Girls” includes songs by The Ronettes (“Be My Baby”), The Chiffons (“One Fine Day”), The Chordettes (“Mr Sandman”), The Supremes (“You Can’t Hurry Love”) and “The Exciters (“Tell Him”). It was released on November 4, and had peaked at no. 3 in the US Billboard 200.