{"id":1182,"date":"2023-09-02T11:16:21","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T15:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/?p=1182"},"modified":"2023-09-02T11:16:21","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T15:16:21","slug":"idina-menzel-reinvents-herself-with-a-dance-album-and-quirky-tiktoks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/idina-menzel-reinvents-herself-with-a-dance-album-and-quirky-tiktoks\/","title":{"rendered":"Idina Menzel reinvents herself \u2014 with a dance album and quirky TikToks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tony winner, best known for her roles in \u2018Wicked\u2019 and \u2018Frozen,\u2019 is entering a new music era with an unconventional social media rollout<\/h2>\n
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Peering through a wrought-iron gate in her backyard, Idina Menzel bobs her head to the beat as she lip-syncs<\/a>, \u201cGot a beast inside, and I\u2019m waking it up.\u201d She struts<\/a> down the street in skinny jeans, passionately emoting with her hands in an impromptu dance. Another day, she jumps on a trampoline and sashays<\/a> down a rickety set of stairs in a cropped T-shirt that reads: \u201cGet in loser, we\u2019re going to book club.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s all part of the singer\u2019s steady stream of unexpected TikToks, in which she has also lounged<\/a> in an empty bathtub while petting a dog, stopped traffic<\/a> to pose in the street, and offered commentary on everything from coyote-feeding etiquette<\/a> to toxicity<\/a> and domesticity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The videos are set to snippets of the 52-year-old chanteuse\u2019s new dance pop album, \u201cDrama Queen,\u201d out Aug. 18. Dance pop \u2014 a disco-inspired subgenre that\u2019s up-tempo enough for nightclubs but catchy enough for radio \u2014 is a departure for Menzel, and she has the bolder online presence to go with it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Menzel had been hesitant to embrace social media. She has been on TikTok since 2019 but only posted sporadically until she ramped up her output this summer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve just been trying to have fun with it,\u201d she says over Zoom from New York\u2019s Fire Island, where she was vacationing. \u201cGet out of my head, lean into the fact that I have this new music that I\u2019m excited to share and just bring out the silly side of me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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By Gen Z\u2019s social media standards, Menzel\u2019s viral efforts are less than cool. Yet coming from the Tony winner best known for originating the role of Elphaba in \u201cWicked\u201d<\/a> and voicing Elsa in Disney\u2019s \u201cFrozen\u201d movies, the chaotic reinvention is refreshingly unpredictable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And her fans are loving it. Talia Buksbazen, a 23-year-old student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, says Menzel\u2019s TikToks inspired her to make her own TikTok re-creating<\/a> Menzel\u2019s \u201cBeast\u201d street dance in her dorm room. Her friends on campus mainly know Menzel from \u201cFrozen,\u201d Buksbazen says, and don\u2019t \u201cfully understand how iconic Idina is\u201d to appreciate her dance pop or her TikToks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI know queen behavior when I see it,\u201d Buksbazen says. \u201cThis is totally camp.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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During Menzel\u2019s early days playing weddings and bar mitzvahs on Long Island in the 1980s, her goal was to get a record deal, not land a Broadway role. Instead, the powerhouse mezzo-soprano first found fame onstage in \u201cRent\u201d and \u201cWicked\u201d and later earned living-room ubiquity from belting the nine-times-platinum \u201cLet It Go\u201d from \u201cFrozen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Over the years, she has released several solo albums on various labels, including pop records, Christmas compilations and a 1998 indie rock album that, she jokes, \u201conly like three people bought.\u201d But that work has largely been eclipsed by her Broadway and Disney roles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Her still unrealized dream, she says, is to put out an \u201cEvanescence-type of album with a wall of guitars\u201d (though she fears a hard rock turn \u201cmight scare people\u201d), and she is eager to shatter people\u2019s expectations of her music with \u201cDrama Queen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m tired of adhering to a formula and to what people think that I should be doing,\u201d Menzel says, cradling a mug of coffee, each fingernail painted a different shade of blue. \u201cBecause I got my start on Broadway, people just assume that you can\u2019t do anything else. This album is about saying, \u2018Screw all of that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The disco eras of such singers as Barbra Streisand and Cher inspired Menzel to take the leap, and she worked on \u201cDrama Queen\u201d with collaborators including Jake Shears from Scissor Sisters and the legendary producer Nile Rodgers to give her \u201csome street cred.\u201d The result is a collection of nine songs, all co-written by Menzel, that she hopes will particularly resonate with her queer fans, who, she says, have been \u201cinspiring me all these years and teaching me how to live my own life as honestly and authentically as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The album\u2019s breakout single, \u201cBeast,\u201d was written and recorded in about a day, says producer and songwriter Sir Nolan, whose work includes Carly Rae Jepsen\u2019s \u201cCut to the Feeling\u201d and Selena Gomez\u2019s \u201cRare.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s always a risk when you try something new, and it is really tough for women [in the music industry]. They get pigeonholed, especially over the age of 30, or even younger,\u201d Nolan says. \u201cThis was Idina\u2019s vision and her idea. She was very confident and ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Menzel is less assured about <\/i>her social media presence. Her TikTok strategy is simple: \u201cI don\u2019t have one,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She usually films the videos around the Los Angeles home she shares with her husband, actor Aaron Lohr, and her 13-year-old son, Walker \u2014 like the gate that stops the dog from getting out or the steps to her son\u2019s treehouse, which has become her own sanctuary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cMy son is often pretty critical,\u201d Menzel says. \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s so cringey, Mom. I should run your TikTok.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Menzel\u2019s TikToks are, in fact, a group effort, involving the prodding of her friend Erin Privratsky, whom <\/b><\/i>she has known since her \u201cWicked\u201d days, and members of her team, who assist with the technical aspects of posting. They also suggest captions, but the singer says she tends to override them and come up with her own concepts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI change it because it just doesn\u2019t feel right, or it feels like I\u2019m trying to cater to younger people,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople aren\u2019t stupid. They\u2019re going to sense when it\u2019s being forced and contrived.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The result is a surprising hodgepodge of content that\u2019s introducing her new tracks to listeners who might otherwise have missed them. Video responses from the singer King Princess<\/a>, ensemble actors<\/a> in an Arizona production of \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d and two fully costumed cast members from the \u201cCats\u201d Asia tour<\/a> have also helped spread the word.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The author and podcaster Danny Pellegrino learned of Menzel\u2019s new music when his friend sent him one of her TikToks. He <\/b><\/i>subsequently made a post for his more than 250,000 Instagram followers, overlaying the \u201cBeast\u201d audio<\/a> on a scene from \u201cThe Office,\u201d in which Jan awkwardly dances at a dinner party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cFor me, it started out as a joke, and then I became legitimately obsessed with the song,\u201d Pellegrino says. \u201cNow, it\u2019s on my workout playlist. I\u2019m running to it. It wasn\u2019t something I expected, initially.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Grace Semler Baldridge, a queer, alt-Christian singer-songwriter who performs as Semler, made her own TikTok re-creating<\/a> the \u201cBeast\u201d dance and marvels at the way Menzel can craft videos that are \u201cunhinged in the best way possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere are celebrities who try to have this really hyper-curated, mysterious, boring version of themselves. That might have worked on other social media, but it doesn\u2019t work on TikTok,\u201d Semler says. \u201cShe\u2019s coloring outside the lines of the parameters that are often put on women in the music industry. I think this is going to be the most successful solo era she\u2019s ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Some on social media have likened Menzel\u2019s new music to the innocuous beats you hear while shopping at a retail chain. (\u201cIt\u2019s giving Maxxinista,\u201d one TikTok commenter wrote, referring to T.J. Maxx devotees. \u201cOld Navy is quaking,\u201d wrote another.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But that\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHow many of us haven\u2019t had the worst days of our lives inside of a Kohl\u2019s dressing room and needed something like \u2018Beast\u2019 to pump you up?\u201d Semler asks. \u201cAnd who\u2019s going to be there for you in that moment but Idina Menzel?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Still, Menzel does read the comments, which can be dispiriting. \u201cYou can see 10 good things and one negative,\u201d she says, \u201cand then I need to see my therapist.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Menzel says that because of the deified characters she has played, she is often expected to be a role model for female empowerment, even when she doesn\u2019t always feel empowered in her own life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ultimately, \u201cDrama Queen\u201d is her attempt to change that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s a difference between having a big singing voice and having a real voice inside you that can actually be heard,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is a reminder to myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tony winner, best known for her roles in \u2018Wicked\u2019 and \u2018Frozen,\u2019 is entering a new music era with an unconventional social media rollout Peering through a wrought-iron gate in her backyard, Idina Menzel bobs her head to the beat as she lip-syncs, \u201cGot a beast inside, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,2],"tags":[77,76],"class_list":["post-1182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-interviews","tag-77","tag-drama-queen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/imrs.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-j4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1182"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1185,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182\/revisions\/1185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}