10 things you need to know about Idina Menzel

by Clarisse Esmile

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Photo by Yu Tsai

We’re pretty sure you’re already aware that Idina Menzel, of Wicked fame, is coming to the Mall of Asia Arena this June 7. But before what will surely be an ethereal night, we have put together a little fact sheet about the Broadway singer. Ladies and gentlemen, the wickedly talented, one and only, Adele Dazeem.

Her birth name is Idina Kim Mentzel.

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She dropped the ‘t’ after people keep mispronouncing her last name; a move that apparently didn’t help some people *coughJohnTravoltacough*

She’s celebrating her birthday this Saturday!

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Happy 44th, Elsa!

She was named after her grandmother, Ida.

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Her name is Hebrew for “gentle”.

Before finishing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, she sang at bar mitzvahs and weddings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkbJJQd5pFo

When she was cast as Nancy, a character that doesn’t sing, for the movie Enchanted, she said she was flattered to be hired based on her acting skills alone.

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What a cutiepie!

She auditioned for the role of Rapunzel in Tangled, along with her Frozen co-star, Kristen Bell.

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Their respective auditions led to them being cast for Frozen instead.

Before her penultimate performance as Elphaba of Wicked, Idina fell through a trap door backstage and cracked her rib.

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She still performed her final song at the final show where she got a 5-minute standing ovation.

When she got wind that people kept remarking about Lea Michele’s uncanny resemblance to her, Idina contacted the producers of Glee and offered to play Rachel Berry’s mom.

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Now we also know her as Shelby, the intense vocal coach!

When you search Adele Dazeem on Google, Idina Menzel’s Wiki page still pops out. Even the Internet knows who John Travolta was talking about!

After John Travolta so infamously mispronounced her name at the 2014 Oscars, Broadway play If/Then, a musical in which Idina played Elizabeth, followed suit and changed her name to Adele Dazeem on its playbills.

See you guys at the Idina concert, yes? We’ll be bringing toy blocks and xylophones! Kidding! Sort of.

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