{"id":876,"date":"2020-04-04T17:36:40","date_gmt":"2020-04-04T17:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/?p=876"},"modified":"2020-04-04T18:14:10","modified_gmt":"2020-04-04T18:14:10","slug":"songs-that-defined-the-decade-idina-menzels-let-it-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/songs-that-defined-the-decade-idina-menzels-let-it-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs That Defined the Decade: Idina Menzel’s ‘Let It Go’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cIt\u2019s still a revolutionary thing, to this day, to say, \u2018That perfect girl is gone.\u2019\u201d<\/h2>\n

Billboard\u00a0is celebrating the\u00a02010s\u00a0with essays on the 100 songs<\/a> that we feel most define the decade that was — the songs that both shaped\u00a0and reflected the music and culture of the period — with help telling their stories from some of the artists, behind-the-scenes collaborators\u00a0and industry insiders\u00a0involved.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Disney has enjoyed as fruitful of a decade as any entertainment company in the world, thanks in large part to booming properties like Marvel, Pixar, the Star Wars<\/em> franchise and the Walt Disney Animation Studios.<\/p>\n

The crown jewel in the latter\u2019s 2010s run was Frozen<\/em>, a Hans Christian Andersen adaptation that swelled into the highest-grossing film of 2013. Credit the story of sisters Anna and Elsa — as well as the kid-friendly comedy of talking snowman Olaf — but the cinematic phenomenon can also be chalked up to the most beloved Disney original soundtrack in nearly two decades, highlighted by the film\u2019s soaring fulcrum, \u201cLet It Go.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Queen Elsa (voiced by Broadway vet Idina Menzel) begins singing \u201cLet It Go,\u201d which was written by the husband-wife musical theater songwriting duo of Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, she is broken, newly perceived as a monster by her subjects and driven from her home due to her magical powers (\u201cA kingdom of isolation, and it looks like I\u2019m the queen,\u201d she glumly concludes). Yet by the end of the power ballad, Elsa has embraced her new identity, physically constructed her ice castle and emotionally celebrated her inner magic, other perspectives be damned. \u201cLet the storm rage on!\u201d she cries. \u201cThe cold never bothered me anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not really pop songwriters,\u201d says Lopez, who earned Tonys for the music from Avenue Q<\/em> and The Book of Mormon<\/em> prior to working on Frozen<\/em>, while Anderson-Lopez previously co-wrote the music to Finding Nemo — The Musical<\/em>. \u201cAll of our songs are really about the story, and \u2018Let It Go\u2019 was inspired by the story of Elsa. We always look for these moments where characters make a decision in the story, where they change, and if you took out that song, you wouldn\u2019t be able to understand how.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet It Go\u201d contains one of the most aerodynamic choruses in modern pop music, a defiant bellowing of the titular phrase that makes for perfect sing-along fodder. Lopez, who admits that he recently performed \u201cLet It Go\u201d at a friend\u2019s karaoke birthday party, says of the enormity of Frozen\u2019s musical linchpin, \u201cWe realized that this character needed to go from really devastated and small and holding everything in, to letting it all out and releasing her power. Because it told that story, it became a little bit of a stake in the ground for the movie as we developed it, and the thing we always went back to.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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