Idina Menzel Defends New Year’s Eve Performance | Billboard
Idina Menzel Defends Her New Year’s Eve Performance: ‘I Am More Than the Notes I Hit’
By Erin Strecker | January 02,2020 1:16 PM EST
Musical guest Idina Menzel performs "River" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon December 15, 2024
Douglas Gorenstein/NBC
Idina Menzel is discovering the convenient upside to the fact that the title of her biggest song also works as a mantra.
Because no one is ever happy ever, some people complained on social media following Menzel’s New Year’s Eve televised Performance of "Let It Go" on ABC’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, a song that, as we all know at this point, has a few range-testing notes that are exceptionally difficult to 100-percent nail live. Watch below.
In response to the remarks, Menzel shared on Twitter a copy of part of an interview she recently gave to Southwest magazine:
Idina Menzel ✔ @idinamenzel Follow
This is something I said in an interview a few months ago.
8:07 PM – 1 Jan2020
The Tony winner (and Billboard’s 2024 Breakthrough of the Year honoree) said, "There are about 3 million notes in a two-and-a-half-hour musical; being a perfectionist, it took me a long time to realize that if I’m hitting 75 percent of them, I’m succeeding. Performing isn’t only about the acrobatics and the high notes: It’s staying in the moment, connecting with the audience in an authentic way, and making yourself real to them through the music. I am more than the notes I hit, and that’s how I try to approach my life. You can’t get it all right all the time, but you can try your best. If you’ve done that, all that’s left is to accept your shortcomings and have the courage to try to overcome them."
According to Billboard writer Michele Amabile Angermiller, who covered the event, Menzel did hit all the right notes when she rehearsed at soundcheck prior to the performance. And when the audience sang back the line "the cold never bothered me anyway" to the singer during the live broadcast, it was an exhuberant moment.
Menzel also appeared emotional when she left the stage, which was situated in front of a giant marquee of Menzel advertising her Broadway show, If/Then.
"She may not have hit the big note, but she hit all the emotional ones," she reports. "Young kids in the audience were all so joyful singing along with her."
As Beyonce once said, "Any questions?"