Tag Archives: Idina Menzel

Music

Idina Menzel Slays Like The “Queen Of Swords” on New Album ‘Idina’ and Announces Engagement!

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Tony Award winner Idina Menzel is back with her new album Idina. Usually, debut album are self-titled, but Menzel felt the need to call her new album Idina because she says  it is “the most personal, introspective albums I’ve ever made.”

If that’s not exciting enough, Menzel also annouced that she and actor Aaron Lohr are engaged!!

The album is filled with deeply personal songs as Menzel felt it was time to get back in the studo and make an original album.

“I chose to call this album Idina because I want people to understand that I’m just being my truest self and poured my heart out into this album. This is an album about rediscovering myself, learning from mistakes, and finding the courage to move forward.

Menzel co-wrote 9 out of the 12 tracks on the album. Idina opens with a song called “Small World” which immediately sticks out. It’s one of those songs that could be sung to a room filled with 5 people or a stadium full of people and still be just as powerful. Wicked fans will also love this song, not only because is might be reminiscent of the song “Defying Gravity” but because of it’s similar message of being independent and being your true self, which is the inspiration of the entire album.

I’m standing in a field / My feet lift off the ground / No one here will see me / No one will hurt me now / I’m brushing off the rain / While climbing through the clouds / Nobody can see me / No one can hurt me now / Goodbye gravity / Goodbye enemies / I’m going up to a place / Where the world is small / Where I can fly above it all / If I don’t make it, sing my song / From here I’m weightless / And no stars are famous / And the world is small. 

 

This album is filled with such inspiring lyrics that show a woman just trying to find herself, learning from her past and being strengthened in the knowledge of what life has taught her.

“Queen Of Swords” also sticks out with it’s fast beats and quick lyrics that make you want to stand on top of a mountain and shout them to the world.

There’s no way I’m holding back anymore / I’m slaying like the queen of swords / I’m slaying like the queen of swords / I can be delicate as a flower / Or a warrior on a throne / Isn’t life for us to  devour / Even if we do it alone /  When I look into the future / And see my story in the cards / Somedays it’s hard and the truth hurts / But I’d never trade my broken heart…. Gonna live to seize the moment / Leaving nothing left unsaid / I am standing here wide open / This queen has no regrets

 

Things slow down with “I See You” but it’s a song that lets people know they aren’t alone even when they are going through horrible times. It’s also a song a lot of fans will connect to Menzel on as they get a sense of her talking directly to them.

Here’s to the lonely / To the broken-hearted / I want you to know I feel your pain / Here’s to the hapless / The almost forgotten / To those who got lost along the way I see you / I see you

Although we get a sense of what Menzel must have been feeling while going through a divorce, we also get the hope she feels with new love in her life and the joy that brings in the song “Everybody Knows.”

Menzel has fun with the story of “Jack and Jill” and putting a new twist on it in which people can’t always give the perfect story with a “textbook happy ending.”

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Co-writing most of the songs on the album really makes the songs feel meaningful. When an artist connects to the words, listeners can feel that and then they connect as well. Thank you Idina, for your courage in making this album and saying what you needed to say. Congratulations on all your hard work and best wishes for a happy Marriage!!!!

Listen to Idina 

Music

Former ‘Wicked’ Co-Stars, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth Are Dropping Albums on the Same Day!

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Is anyone else freaking out? The formed Wicked Broadway stars, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth are both dropping new albums… on the same day! September 23 is the magical date where our ears will be blessed with greatness!

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Chenoweth is set to star in Hairspray Live! this December alongside an amazing cast!

She had been teasing about another announcement and at last she announced a new album: The Art of Elegance.

The album is not one of personal songs but her renditions of timeless classics. Chenoweth is excited to put out an album of some of her favorite songs, saying: 

“Of course I love to sing songs that people know. Songs that we’ve heard before are like our DNA; we know them in our hearts. Honoring the singers who have sung this repertoire is the most challenging part of the process, singing it from my heart and my perspective and my experience. It’s a challenge, but it’s a fun one. In every song I sing, I must find my own phrasing, down to the final breath. A lot can be said in a breath or a pause.”

TRACK LIST:
Someone to Watch Over Me (3:04)

(George Gershwin-Ira Gershwin)

I’ve Got a Crush on You (feat. Dave Koz) (2:54)

(George Gershwin-Ira Gershwin)

Let’s Fall in Love (3:12)

(Harold Arlen-Ted Koehler)

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (5:00)

(Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart)

Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart (3:21)

(James F. Hanley)

The Very Thought of You (feat. Dave Koz) (4:24)

(Ray Noble)

They Can’t Take That Away From Me (3:20)

(George Gershwin-Ira Gershwin)

A House Is Not a Home (4:08)

(Burt Bacharach-Hal David)

I Get Along Without You Very Well (4:27)

(Hoagy Carmichael)

Skylark (4:41)

(Johnnie Mercer-Hoagy Carmichael)

I’m a Fool to Want You (5:38)

(Frank Sinatra-Jack Wolf-Joel Herron)

Smile (3:11)

(Charlie Chaplin-John Turner-Geoffrey Parsons)

You’re My Saving Grace… (2:51)

(Steve Tyrell-Stephanie Tyrell-Barry Coffing)

Menzel also posted about her new album coming out on September 23 and it’s self titled! She says her new album Idina is her most personal yet!

On having a self-titled album she says: 

“I want you to know me on a first-name basis, I guess. I poured my heart out and used my music as a place to kind of figure some things out. It’s a really personal album.”

She joked about her name being butchered a lot and even how John Travolta messed it up a little more recently (Adele Dazeem). 

There’s a little period after it that kind of gives a little attitude, but that’s just ‘cause of those, like, four guys that bullied me in middle school that always screwed up my name. And then maybe one older guy a little more recently.

Menzel also has a fun project in the works as she will be in the remake of the movie Beaches.

Not gonna lie we are pretty pumped for these albums from two great legends!

Movies

The Tony Award Winning Broadway Musical ‘Wicked’ Is Finally Coming To The Big Screen!

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The Tony award winning musical Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz is finally coming to the big screen!  The movie has been finally given a release date – December 20th 2019. The movie has been in talks for over a decade and a theartical release from Universal Pictures has finally been confirmed.  

The director will be Stephen Daldry and the script is being put together by Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz. Holzman is credited for writing the book of Wicked and Schwartz was the lyricist-composer of the play. All key parts of the movie are in place it seems, except for the biggest one – the cast.

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Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel played Glinda and Elphaba in the original Broadway Musical and they reunited just over month ago to perform the hit song “For Good.” It was the first time the two had reunited to perform a song from Wicked in 12 years. It was at an event to honor one of the producers of Wicked, David Stone. When E News asked Chenoweth if she and Menzel were planning another collaboration, she told them she couldn’t say because it was a secret.

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If that wasn’t enough to get fans excited, Chenoweth posted a photo to her Instagram of her wearing a crown and promised big news was coming soon. While there’s no official word if it is Wicked related the crown does look a lot like the one she wore as Glinda and it’s got us freaking out!

 

Update* Chenoweth has revealed the big news! She will be in ABC’s Hairspray: Live! Read all about it! If she can be in Hairspray: Live!, we see no reason she can’t be in Wicked!

Although Chenoweth and Menzel have both expressed they are “too old” to play the parts, we are pretty confident everyone wants to see them reprise the role. Heck, use the original soundtrack, we don’t care! There is nothing better than seeing the Original actors in such an iconic role. It was amazing that Menzel got to be in the Rent movie after starring in the Broadway Musical, there’s no reason it should’t occur again! Menzel won a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Elphaba. Wicked also won a GRAMMY for Best Musical Show Album which included the original Broadway Cast.

While there is no word on who will be casted in the movie, it does give fans of Wicked something to look forward to during the 2019 holiday season!

Watch the Video below of Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel singing “For Good” together after 12 years apart!