To many, especially a generation of \u201cFrozen\u201d-loving youngsters, Idina Menzel is Queen Elsa and, more importantly, the voice of the film\u2019s Grammy Award-winning hit \u201cLet It Go.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s more to her story than that.<\/p>\n
A Tony Award-winning Broadway veteran, Menzel has originated key parts in \u201cRent,\u201d \u201cWicked\u201d and \u201cIf\/Then,\u201d among others. She also has an extensive resume of film and TV appearances, including a 12-episode run on \u201cGlee.\u201d She\u2019s released six albums, including the 2016 set \u201cidina.\u201d for which she co-wrote nine of 12 tracks.<\/p>\n
This summer brings Menzel on the road for her second world tour, which is hitting seven countries and focuses on the \u201cidina.\u201d album…<\/p>\n
\u2022 Menzel, 46, says by phone that with her second world tour \u201cthere\u2019s an ease about it, I guess. I\u2019m with most of the same musicians I\u2019ve had for years, so it\u2019s like a big family. I\u2019ve brought in three new women; They all sing and one\u2019s a violinist and another plays a million instruments. So that\u2019s been really great to have some girl power on the tour now. It\u2019s a nine-piece band as opposed to the last time when we picked up an orchestra in each city; It\u2019s nice but this way we\u2019re our own little insular unit, which I like.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Another difference on this tour — her son Walker from her marriage to \u201cRent\u201d co=-star Taye Diggs. \u201cMy son is a different age this time (eight years old) which is making it different,\u201d she says. \u201cHe\u2019s appreciating it on a different level, which is good for me. He\u2019s more independent, so it\u2019s a little bit easier this time around although I still don\u2019t get quite as much sleep as I need because he\u2019s up and rarin\u2019 to go at seven in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Menzel is also happy to be on the road singing more original material rather than just songs from the shows she\u2019s been in. However, she adds, \u201cI still find a way to connect all the music, whether it be from the shows I\u2019ve been in or some cool covers I\u2019ve always wanted to do or music from the album. That\u2019s how I always look at putting a show together — What do the songs mean? What do they mean in my life? How did they change me in some way? Even if there\u2019s a cover there\u2019s a reason I\u2019m singing it, so there\u2019s a through-line to everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Speaking of covers, Menzel has raised some eyebrows by included Led Zeppelin\u2019s \u201cBlack Dog\u201d out of the \u201cidina.\u201d track \u201cCake.\u201d \u201cThat song always reminded me having a little Zeppelin in it,\u201d she says, \u201cso I thought, \u2018Wouldn\u2019t it be cool to maybe segue into a (Zeppelin) song I love. The funny thing is it\u2019s hard to find Zeppelin tunes, lyrically, that fit \u2018cause they were so high all the time and always talking about meadows and weird, hippie kind of lyrics. \u2018Cake\u2019 is a sexy kind of song, so \u2018Black Dog\u2019 seemed to fit the best. The band was like, \u2018Who cares? We\u2019ll put in a Zeppelin song that fits the groove,\u2019 but to me the lyric has to make sense, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Menzel\u2019s next project will actually be promoting \u201cVoice Lessons,\u201d a memoir by her younger sister about growing up with a singing star. Menzel wrote the foreword and will be making appearances around the book\u2019s fall publication. \u201cShe wrote this beautiful, poignant book about growing up in her older sister\u2019s shadow,\u201d says Menzel, who\u2019s also engaged to actor Aaron Lohr. \u201cIt\u2019s not salacious, not that kind of book. She just follows our lives, the trajectory of my career and the different milestones we both had, You hear things about my experiences in different shows I was in and about when I was little, cultivating my voice and how I made my sister eat dirt and taught her about boys. I\u2019m really excited for it to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To many, especially a generation of \u201cFrozen\u201d-loving youngsters, Idina Menzel is Queen Elsa and, more importantly, the voice of the film\u2019s Grammy Award-winning hit \u201cLet It Go.\u201d But there\u2019s more to her story than that. A Tony Award-winning Broadway veteran, Menzel has originated key parts in \u201cRent,\u201d \u201cWicked\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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":[2],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-45"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-ah","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637","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=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":638,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions\/638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}