Broadway and Disney legend Idina Menzel is sitting onstage at Los Angeles\u2019s Grammy Museum, chatting with Yahoo Entertainment music editor Lyndsey Parker about her cleverly titled new disco album, Drama Queen<\/em>. The record is packed with bangers, not her usual ballads (\u201cHey, I can do ballads till I’m 90 \u2014 I’m going to be doing \u2018Defying Gravity\u2019 and \u2018Let It Go\u2019 when I\u2019m in Vegas, when I’m in the B-lounge and nobody’s hiring me,\u201d she quips), but it is not a total <\/em>departurefor Menzel. After all, the You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah <\/em>star got her start covering hits by \u201camazing, huge, dynamic, big-personality\u201d disco divaslike Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor at actual bat mitzvahs, and she remembers those pre-Rent<\/em>\/Wicked<\/em> days fondly, as \u201ca great stomping ground for me to learn all kinds of genres of music, to practice while nobody was listening and make mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n But now Menzel is really letting it go, so to speak. After years of trying to cross over to pop with only modest chart success, she\u2019s finally “made the album I really wanted to make \u2014 for me<\/em>, not caring about what a lot of people in the industry thought<\/em> I should be doing, not overly strategizing and not overly thinking about it\u2026 just really not giving a f***, honestly!\u201d<\/p>\n Menzel stops herself and chucklingly apologizes for her F-bomb, aware that several tweens \u2014 who of course mainly know and love her as Frozen<\/em>\u2019s Elsa \u2014 are sitting in the Grammy Museum\u2019s Clive Davis Theater audience. She admits, \u201cWhen you’re a Disney queen\u2026 it does cause problems for me, being a 52-year-old woman who finds my husband really hot and likes to have a drink once in a while and not just talk to 12-year-old girls. \u2026 So, sometimes I have to curse! I have to let it out. I mean, I’m an East Coast girl. It’s really f***ing hard to be a role model.\u201d<\/p>\n Menzel knows such concerns are \u201cchampagne problems,\u201d and stresses that Frozen<\/em> has been \u201cthe greatest thing that’s ever happened to me. I was a little girl that dreamt of this from the time I was 6 years old, and my dreams have come true. \u2026 I love performing and I couldn’t have even imagined all of these things. And to be able to connect with young people, especially since I\u2019m a mom, to be able to see it from all sides of the spectrum, is just the greatest gift. But yes, if you’re singing about empowering little kids and you’re 52 and you can’t get up in the morning sometimes, there’s a little hypocrisy there. You’re forced to have these songs or scenes or things that make you better, walk the walk, talk the talk \u2014 or at least be a really good actress. It is hard to be a role model sometimes. But [\u201cLet It Go\u201d] is actually one of my proudest, proudest moments.\u201d<\/p>\n But now on Drama Queen<\/em>, Menzel is showcasing different, decidedly less Disney-esque sides of her personality. For instance, there are two brassy and bitchy empowerment anthems, the house music bop \u201cBeast\u201d (\u201cI woke up that day and I had some balls,\u201d she says of that song\u2019s recording session) and the pointy-fingernailed \u201cMake Me Hate Me<\/a>\u201d (about an unnamed \u201cf***er that I compromised myself and lost a sense of myself for \u2014 and getting it back\u201d) There\u2019s also the sexy, \u201cMacArthur Park\u201d-esque coda track \u201cMadison Hotel,\u201d which was inspired by Menzel\u2019s early courtship with current husband Aaron Lohr, when the couple would rendezvous at their favorite Manhattan \u201chaven\u201d (a sleek hotel with \u201ca really sexy bar and rooms with bathtubs in the middle of them\u201d). The single \u201cMove,\u201d while deceptively frothy and Minogue\/Lipa-esque, lyrically explores Menzel\u2019s insecurities and \u201cthis idea of wanting to really step into my own runway of life, my own spotlight\u2026 to really own that light and not be afraid of my own power, which has been something that I find as a woman I am always wrestling with.\u201d Menzel believes it\u2019s important, even if it\u2019s sometimes \u201cterrifying,\u201d for her to be able express herself in these new ways.<\/p>\n \u201cKids have to know, and women need to know, that we’re all trying to just be so strong and so powerful, and it’s not easy to always do that,\u201d Menzel says. \u201cPeople need to know that yes, you can try and you can succeed, but then there are other days where you’re just not going to get it together. And that’s just is what it is. But you can’t be a good artist \u2014 you can’t connect with an audience, you can’t make people feel things or get chills, or have empathic, connected experience with a theater or a community or in society \u2014 if you’re not making yourself vulnerable and willing to take risks and make mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n Drama Queen <\/em>features some of Menzel all-time greatest vocals, notably on a pair of collaborations with Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters: the \u201cdark side of disco\u201d lament \u201cFunny Kind of Lonely<\/a>,\u201d which Menzel says depicts a \u201cdrama queen in the bathroom taking off her makeup\u201d after \u201ca hard night\u201d of \u201ctoo many bourbons,\u201d and the glass-shatteringly wailing floor-filler\/fist-pumper \u201cDramatic.\u201d But even though the album places Menzel on a level with her dance-diva idols like Summer, Gaynor, Diana Ross, Cher, and \u201cNo More Tears\u201d-era Barbra Streisand, she admits that she\u2019s still a harsh self-critic \u2014 especially \u201cin this day and age when everyone is up our butts with social media and they don’t miss a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Menzel still ruefully remembers that time when she \u201ccompletely botched notes\u201d during her 2015 New Year\u2019s Eve performance of \u201cLet It Go,\u201d when she sang the Oscar-winning Frozen<\/em> smash in Times Square\u2019s freezing elements and was bashed on the platform then known as Twitter. \u201cDeciding not to lip-sync, to sing a song in its original key with little hand-warmers and extra layers so that I can sing at midnight. Zero-degree weather. And then I hit the last note and sounded like Bruce Springsteen or something,\u201d she laughs. \u201cAnd then people wrote such mean things \u2014 and I read<\/em> them! That was stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n Menzel continues, \u201cMy identity is so<\/em> wrapped up in being a singer, and I’ve often felt, \u2018Who am I if I’m not a singer? What is my worth? What makes me different, sets me apart in the world?\u2019\u201d So, when it\u2019s time for her perform live, she gets stressed out if she can\u2019t be at \u201ca hundred percent.\u201d An \u201call-or-nothing girl\u201d who likens herself to an \u201cathlete\u201d when she\u2019s preparing to sing publicly, she rattles off a list of \u201cmany little variables\u201d that can throw off a performance: not just frigid outdoor temperatures, but laryngitis, heartburn, a crying jag, being up late with her son or on a red-eye flight, or even one \u201cTMI\u201d reason. \u201cI mean, imagine having your period!\u201d she exclaims. \u201cThink<\/em> about opera singers \u2014 they only do a certain amount [of performances] a week [because of their menstrual cycles]. Sorry, but it’s one of the most annoying things about singing for woman!\u201d<\/p>\n Menzel says it has taken \u201csome years of experience\u201d come to this realization, but lately, while performing her party-starting disco fare at Pride events, she has \u201clearned that it isn’t just<\/em> about my high notes \u2014 that it really is about storytelling<\/em> for me. I’ve had audiences just get<\/em>it and feel<\/em> it, [even when] I didn’t do all that stuff that I thought they wanted to hear.\u201d It has also taken her a while to get used to disco-dancing and singing live at the same time \u2014 \u201cThere’s a reason<\/em> why people lip-sync!\u201d she laughs \u2014 but she\u2019s managed by avoiding wearing the towering platform shoes featured in the aggressively glamorous Jerry Hall\/Kate Bush\/Roxy Music-like visuals of Drama Queen<\/em>\u2019s album art and videos. \u201cThat way, I can hit the notes and breathe, and then dance around. I’m learning that you sing the big notes and then<\/em> you dance, and then the easy stuff is lower in your voice; that\u2019s when you can actually do a little step\/together\/step\/together.\u201d<\/p>\n The release of \u201cMove,\u201d Drama Queen<\/em>\u2019s first single, coincided with Pride Month, as a love letter of sorts to Menzel\u2019s supportive LBGTQ+ fanbase. And that community loved her right back with \u201cthe most amazing album release party\u201d at Brooklyn gay club 3 Dollar Bill, where a delighted Menzel watched a cast of drag queens slay and sashay to her tracks. (One drag queen with especially deep-cut Idina knowledge even donned the famous red Adidas tracksuit that Medina wore for Wicked<\/em>\u2019s final night, which Menzel had to sit out in 2005 because she\u2019d fallen through a stage trap door and broken her ribs the night before.) \u201c[The drag queens] learned my album, which was so incredible\u2026 and then they did a bunch of songs from my life with full-on production, choreo, dancers, costumes, the whole thing. It was such an incredible night, but I felt like crying most of the time,\u201d Menzel gushes. \u201cIt was really just so\u2026 I don’t know, I just felt good <\/em>about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Menzel derived a lot of validation from her new album\u2019s impressive collaborators as well. Along with the two co-writes with disco prince Shears, she experienced a \u201cpinch-me moment\u201d recording with the king of disco, Nile Rodgers\u2019s Chic, on the \u201cGood Times\u201d-inspired \u201cParadise\u201d (\u201cI begged<\/em> him to work with me \u2026 I wanted him to give me street cred, honestly\u201d), and she also teamed with superstar songwriter Justin Tranter (Selena Gomez, Kelly Clarkson, Justin Bieber, DNCE, Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa) for the sweetly Olivia Newton John-like \u201cMy Love for Life.<\/a>\u201d She is hugely grateful for all of the \u201cwonderful writers and producers that worked with me and said yes to my ideas, and didn’t say, \u2018But you’re from Broadway<\/em>!\u2019 \u2026 For a long time, people in the business, and the music industry especially, were always worried about me being too \u2018versatile,\u2019 because if you’re not just very specific for them, it makes their job harder to market you and all that stuff.\u201d But now the multi-hyphenate entertainer, who\u2019s played everywhere from the Catskills to Broadway to the Oscars to Lilith Fair, realizes that having a varied \u201cbody of work that you can be proud of\u201d is \u201cmuch bigger than just one album or one song.\u201d<\/p>\n And disco queen \u2014 or drama queen \u2014 is seemingly Menzel\u2019s role of a lifetime, and the role that the Tony Award-winner was born to play. She admits there have been times in the past when she could feel herself \u201cretreating or diminishing\u2026 and I don’t like that. I’m very aware of that, because I’m neurotic and always thinking about these things.\u201d But now she\u2019s \u201creclaiming\u201d the words \u201cdrama\u201d and \u201cdiva,\u201d and celebrating her \u201cbiggest, loudest, boldest self. \u2026 I think it’s pretty awesome <\/em>to be a drama queen! It means that you feel things deeply and intensely, and you are passionate and you’re fiery and you’re romantic and you can be a mess, and you can be sensitive and vulnerable and all those things. And it makes you really <\/em>cool to be married to \u2014 it keeps people on their toes! But really, it makes us better artists and better human beings. So, I’m all for just embracing it.\u201d<\/p>\n The above interview is taken from Idina Menzel’s appearance at the Grammy Museum on Aug. 22, 2023.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Disco queen \u2014 or ‘Drama Queen’ \u2014 is seemingly the role the Tony-winner was born to play, as she celebrates being a \u201cmess\u201d and her \u201cbiggest, loudest, boldest self.\u201d Broadway and Disney legend Idina Menzel is sitting onstage at Los Angeles\u2019s Grammy Museum, chatting with Yahoo Entertainment music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1191,"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-1189","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\/normal_74446837-0-image-a-31_1692302230469.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-jb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189","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=1189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1190,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions\/1190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}