Idina Menzel thinks John Travolta mispronouncing her name at the Academy Awards “changed” her life.
The Broadway star performed Let It Go from the hit Disney film Frozen at the Oscar’s ceremony last year. The track went on to win Best Original Song but before the performance even began, Idina almost lost her focus when the Pulp Fiction actor introduced her as Adele Dazeem by mistake.
But almost a year on from the gaff, the 43-year-old thinks it did her a favour.
“It has change my life," she explained during a chat with Access Hollywood. "People that didn't know me, now know me, and the people that knew me, stuck up for me. So, that made me feel really good."
However she did admit that having the infamous moment happen seconds before she had to start singing did throw her off.
But ever the professional, she found a way to centre herself and belt out the winning track.
“There was a lot of meditation going on to keep me focused when that happened,” she said.
The mother-of-one’s next big live performance will be at the Superbowl on Sunday. She will be singing the National Anthem before the game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.
While she does feel nervous, her experience on Broadway means it’s a kind of anxiety that she is quite comfortable with.
"I do eight shows a week on Broadway. I'm a creature of live performance and that's what I live for, that's what I float on, that adrenaline… I get to be in the moment in life, and so that makes me have to appreciate those moments," she said. “I'm going to sing it straight from the heart. It's really a beautiful song. It's beautiful. I'd like to try and not get too carried away, swept away in all the craziness, and really sing it from a prideful place."
