The Best Part of the Super Bowl? Idina Menzel
Image by Getty Images
By John A. Oswald February 2, 2015
Idina Menzel sings the National Anthem at the Super Bowl// Getty Images
It may have been a football game but Jewish diva Idina Menzel hit a home run with her version of the Star Spangled Banner.
Katy Perry at halftime? Feh.
No. For us at The Forward, Idina Menzel (or Adele Nazeem, if you’re John Travolta) Let It Go!
America agrees. Elsa the Snow Queen was Flawless.
And that black jumpsuit by Angel Sanchez? Perfect.
Ex-husband Taye Diggs, with whom the “Frozen” star has a son, gushed: “Yup. Baby Mama crushed it at the Super Bowl.”
Yup. Baby mama crushed it at the Super Bowl. pic.twitter.com/94Vs8trhuD
— Taye Diggs (@TayeDiggs) February 2, 2015
Yup.
Menzel has sung the National Anthem at other sporting events, but this, by far, was her largest audience ever.
Menzel hit all the notes just right — a big difference from a month ago when she flubbed a high note on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and suffered a quick death by Twitter.
Ah, social media, you give and you take.
She asked the Twitterati before taking the field to “send me good vibes.”
Send me good vibes! #SB49
— Idina Menzel (@idinamenzel) February 1, 2015
The former “Wicked” star exclaimed, “Yes” when she nailed that final note Sunday night.
The Twitterverse also yelled “Yes.”
Millionaire Matchmaker Patti Stanger: “Way to go. Made me cry.”
Way to go @idinamenzel #NationalAnthem made me cry! #SuperBowl
— Patti Stanger (@pattistanger) February 1, 2015
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ): “So beautiful.”
So beautiful. Thank you Idina Menzel.
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) February 1, 2015
Glee star Chris Colfer: “So proud.” He dubbec the game #Elphabowl, a tip to her Broadway run in “Wicked” as Elphaba.
So proud! @idinamenzel #Elphabowl
— Chris Colfer (@chriscolfer) February 1, 2015
The tribes were representing throughout the night, including half-Jewish rocker Lenny Kravitz lending Perry a hand (or is it, guitar) during her halftime whatever. Let’s just say our Kabbalah sister Esther… uh, Madonna was far better in 2012.
There were several ads that also caught our attention:
Jewish star Jeff Bridges, who has an album of sleep tracks out ventured into the bizarre. Writes the Daily Mail: “One of the strangest commercials to air during the 2015 Super Bowl had to be SquareSpace’s Power Of Om ad featuring Jeff Bridges. In it the 65-year-old actor sat in a darkened room, wordlessly mellow as he offered an ‘om’ chant to a sleeping couple. …Bearded and long-haired, Bridges looked like some sort of yogi as he hummed a chant and ran a stick over a metal bowl for music.” The New York Times called it one of the best of the night.
“Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston, our favorite Jewish convert (Dr. Tim Whatley) from Seinfeld’s classic “Yada, Yada” reprised his meth-making Walter White for eSurance. Deadpan hilarious.
And our still favorite: Israeli cloud-based website maker Wix and their ad starring Brett Favre and four other retired football stars trying to figure out their next big act. Like Idina: They nailed it.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
