Idina Menzel

Though John Travolta famously fumbled the pronunciation of her name while introducing her performance at the Oscar®s in 2014, Broadway audiences knew the name of Idina Menzel long before she helped Disney’s Frozen become an all-conquering global phenomenon. The future voice of Queen Elsa was born in New York City in 1971 and started her training in classical singing at the age of eight. In 1996, she made her professional stage debut in the original Broadway production of Rent. Remarkable for its power and precision, her mezzo-soprano voice and her onstage charm and charisma served her equally well when she originated the role of Elphaba in Wicked, a show that further endeared her to audiences and earned Menzel her first Tony for Best Actress in a Musical. While her theatrical endeavours kept her in high demand, solo albums like 1998’s Still I Can’t Be Still and 2008’s I Stand showed her developing skills as a singer/songwriter whose work inspires comparisons with Sarah McLachlan at her most sensitive and emotive. Nevertheless, wide-range name recognition eluded Menzel until her robust performance of Elsa’s empowerment anthem “Let It Go” became inescapable in 2013. Thanks to the boost in profile she got more of the attention she deserved when she returned to a more intimate mode of performance on 2016’s idina., her fifth and most acutely personal album to date.