Idina "Let It Go" New Years- Page 6

[StephieElise]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 2:27am

I love Idina. I've seen her in concert in Melbourne and then in If/Then and she was absolutely amazing (and she was quite clearly sick the day I saw If/Then). I don't think her issue with Let It Go is inconsistency, it's that that note is just out of her belting range. One of my favourite Australian singers, Amanda Harrison, sings Let It Go in her cabaret show and was also hired by Disney to sing it at a few things last Christmas, including a televised Christmas concert. Everytime I have heard her sing it, she has nailed that note. BUT, she is not as vocally consistent as Idina - the poor thing had to take months off from and ultimately pull out of Wicked because she was going to lose her voice and she couldn't possibly sing If/Then 8 shows a week. But Idina can, because she IS a consistent performer. She just can't belt that note because it's too damn high for her.

I think if she's going to keep singing it live she has to do one of three things: 1) lower the key (or at least that note); 2) switch to head voice for that note; or 3) pre-record and lipsynch that one note. I love her to death, but she just can't belt that note live.

[Broadwaydreaming]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 4:37am

The minute she started singing, I sensed the strain in her voice. All I thought was, she's not going to make that note. I think the hardcore hate came from the fact that most people have no idea who she is besides the lady that sings a Disney song. If I was watching her for the first time with little knowledge about her past, I would have been just as judgey. Like you had one job, lady. Is it right? No, but I get why everyone freaked.

I also think this Disney thing is not Idina's element. I just can't see her as this "super awesome vocally fun glittery singer that gets the whole crowed happy and excited because yay, Idina!" There's a lot of people that sing Wicked songs perfectly and accurately, but I always keep coming back to her because she brings something different to the table. A certain intimate depth. This is one of my favorite performances by her
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6vzxwnzUz8

Is she the best singer out there? Of course not, but she's obviously done something right. It kills me that when you type in "Id" into the search field on youtube two different searches for her new years flub pop up. Of course it will all pass as world keeps spinning, but I think she handled it well.

[Lovinbroadway2]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 8:02am

Even though Idina was magnificent in the recording studio, I feel that she has always struggled with the last note. I also find it sad that many people see Idina as the woman who was in Frozen, and not knowing what other works she has done. I feel that people think that SHE IS "Let it go" and if she screws it up, she screwed up her whole career, which is not true. I think this twitter post backs her up well:

"There are about 3 million notes in a two-and-a-half-hour musical," her quote in the article reads." 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."


Updated On: 1/4/15 at 08:02 AM

[CurtainsUpat8]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 9:02am

I highly doubt there are 3 million notes in a 3 hour musical. Especially for one character. Is she counting every note from every instrument in the orchestra as well. I thought Eden's description as "humiliating moment" was really passive aggressive. It negated anything else she had to say.

I do agree that no one can be perfect. But this is Idina's SIGNATURE song for probably her lifetime, whether she likes it or not. She better find a way of singing it as near to perfect as possible every time she sings it. Especially on TV in front of a huge audience. What she sounded like was pretty awful. I also don't think she can blame the weather. I have sung outside and I think all of the explanations about the weather effecting the voice is nonsense. It's too high to keep belting it.

I saw Alice Ripley in A Christmas Memory at the Irish Rep just the other day. Her voice is a lesson in over belting. It's not unpleasant but it's kind of shot. it's just a shadow of what it was during Side Show. I hope Idina doesn't end up the same. You can't belt that high and that often and that intensely for an entire career.

[Pootie2]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 9:18am

"I don't think her issue with Let It Go is inconsistency, it's that that note is just out of her belting range. ....She just can't belt that note because it's too damn high for her.

I think if she's going to keep singing it live she has to do one of three things: 1) lower the key (or at least that note); 2) switch to head voice for that note; or 3) pre-record and lipsynch that one note. I love her to death, but she just can't belt that note live.
"

It's right on the edge of her range, not actually out of it, otherwise Menzel would not have raised the key and recorded in the studio thus. I see it like driving a car at maximum speeds--conditions must be ideal to be able speed at 100+mph and take turns without sliding out and rolling over. But I agree, because it's on the edge, she won't be able to nail it too consistently except under the most ideal conditions. The best option is still (1) because people will be able to tell 2 or 3, but you can't as easily for 1 unless you have perfect pitch. For Fallon and CMA, down half a step. I don't know if her Japanese Red/White rendition was down, but I wonder if she was feeling confident from that performance however many hours before the NYE one.


"I highly doubt there are 3 million notes in a 3 hour musical. Especially for one character. Is she counting every note from every instrument in the orchestra as well. I thought Eden's description as "humiliating moment" was really passive aggressive. It negated anything else she had to say."

Oh, so you're one of those people who are going to hang on the 3 million and 75% figurative numbers as literal and ignore the rest. Good, your comment can't be taken seriously. (I'm floored by the people who can't interpret the entirety of the quote and comprehend she didn't mean literally, good grief. Yes, she could have said it better, but come on.) And others didn't interpret Eden's description as an actual judgment call; like I said, ANY performer will never want to make a single mistake, because it's humiliating from that perspective. She is not making a judgment from the point of view of an audience member but obviously (though you didn't comprehend that either) from a fellow performer's perspective.

(And has anyone here actually tried taking a deep mouth-breath in 30F or below weather? Around these parts, every so often there is a news blip of someone with asthma dying because they stepped into the cold and took a breath; for non-asthmatic people, it's still painful.)

Updated On: 1/4/15 at 09:18 AM

[CurtainsUpat8]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 11:17am

I don't think that much of Idina's voice anyway. Highly overrated. She got lucky with Frozen. And she got lucky with Wicked. There are lots of singers who could have originated that role much better. And it's a terrible show. She has a very unpleasant belt to me. If she is happy with doing well on 75 percent of her performance that pretty much sums it up.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 12:40pm

At the risk of alliterating my silly self suicidally, this is so so so so so much tsuris over about two seconds of a single song from the cinema.

[bwaydude22089]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 4:22pm

Wow! That performance of "Heart On Her Sleeve" is incredible. So raw and moving. I think that was back in 2002 or 2003, right about when she started in Wicked. Before she won the Tony. She gets so into it! Love it Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think she wrote that song, yes?

Updated On: 1/4/15 at 04:22 PM

[baal]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 6:11pm

Yeah she did write it. It's from her first album she recorded in the 90s after Rent.

I feel so bad for Idina with this situation. I was praying before the performance that she wouldn't sing it in the original key. And once I heard that it was, and heard the tone of her voice, I knew she would have trouble.

I'm not sure if the producers of the special wouldn't let her use a different backing track or not, but none of this would've have happened if it would have been few steps lower, like she has been singing it on the CMA special and other events for her holiday album.

I'm a singer, and I understand that sometimes the notes just aren't there, which is why I've always been taught to put songs in a key that I will be comfortable singing all the time. Idina was probably in great voice when they made the decision to bump up the key before recording, but it's not a key that is in her tessitura.

The worst part of this has been peoples' reactions. We've become so quick to say "she's terrible", etc. The internet has really given people the ability to speak before thinking at all.

Updated On: 1/4/15 at 06:11 PM

[adam.peterson44]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 9:37pm

"The internet has really given people the ability to speak before thinking at all. "

As an old person who was around before the internet, let me just assure any young folk reading this thread that people most certainly had the ability to speak before thinking even pre-internet. :)

Just wanted to clarify that minor point. Carry on!