It’s been 10 years since John Travolta inadvertently created Idina Menzel’s alter ego.
A decade has officially passed since Travolta, 70, notoriously flubbed Menzel’s, 52, name at the 2014 Oscars when, upon introducing her to the stage, he called her “Adele Dazeem.” In a humorous video shared via TikTok and her Instagram Story on Saturday, March 2, Menzel wished Adele a happy birthday.
“Hey, Adele Dazeem, it’s Idina Menzel. I just want to say happy birthday,” she said in the video, which she captioned, “Happy 10th Birthday, Adele Dazeem!”
The Rent star continued, “I’m sending you so much love and positive energy, I hope you have the best, best day.” Menzel then sang a rendition of “Happy Birthday” before concluding her well wishes with, “Have a great one, lots of love, bye!”
@idinamenzel Happy 10th birthday, Adele Dazeem!
Menzel has voiced Elsa in Disney’s Frozen franchise since 2013. As part of the 86th annual Academy Awards the following year, she performed the Frozen soundtrack’s Oscar-nominated song, “Let It Go,” where she was introduced by Travolta.
“There will always be a special place in my heart for the movie musical and for the songs that create their most memorable moments,” the Grease star said in his segment. “Here to perform the Oscar-nominated, gorgeously empowering song ‘Let It Go,’ from the Oscar-winning animated movie Frozen, please welcome the wickedly talented, one and only, Adele Dazeem.”
(Frozen took home two Oscars for Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature.)
Menzel has proven to be a good sport about the mix up over the past decade, routinely joking about the incident on social media. In 2022, the actress participated in the viral “Not My Name” challenge on TikTok where she included Adele Dazeem among her iconic roles, from Elphaba in Broadway’s Wicked to Lea Michele’s mom on Glee.
Following the 2014 ceremony, Travolta told Us Weekly that he had been “beating [himself] up” over the snafu. “Then I thought … What would Idina Menzel say? She’d say, ‘Let it go, let it go!’ Idina is incredibly talented and I am so happy Frozen took home two Oscars [on] Sunday night!” he told Us at the time.
For her part, Menzel admitted in 2015 that she was initially thrown by the mistake as she took the stage. “But then I just got back on track and reminded myself of where I was, and what a beautiful moment it was,” she told Billboard at the time, adding that Travolta reached out to her privately to apologize. “He was really gracious and sent this gorgeous email, and we’re buddies and it’s all cool. Please. I mean, I’ve only benefited from it!”
