The continued popularity of Idina Menzel's "Let It Go" from the soundtrack to Disney's Frozen continues to rise up the Billboard Hot 100, reaching no. 9 on this week's chart. That jump makes Menzel the first person to have both a Billboard Top 10 hit and a Tony award for acting.
Not to sound like a Broadway hipster, but musical fans knew with the actress's vocal talents far before she voiced Elsa in the current hit film. Menzel received her first Tony nomination for her role as Maureen in the original Broadway production of Rent. She then received a Best Actress Trophy in 2004 for her most acclaimed role, as the "wicked with" Elphaba in the musical Wicked.
It's important to note that Menzel isn't the first person with a Tony to crack into the Hot 100 Top 10: just the first with an acting-based Tony to do so. Many musicians have taken part in musical productions strictly in the musical sense, including Elton John, who has a Best Original Music Score award for his work on Aida, and more recently Cyndi Lauper, who scored a Best Score (music or lyrics) prize for 2013's Kinky Boots. Barbara Streisand, Barry Manilow, and Diana Ross have all won special awards (such as lifetime achievement, etc.) at the Tonys, which weren't considered for the mark Menzel just set.
The Frozen Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and "Let It Go" don't show signs of slowing down either. The track has continued to inspire almost daily viral videos reframing the track (in various languages...or for Cincinnati weather reports), and the track was the fourth most-downloaded song on the Billboard charts on last week's report. The album had been kept out of the top spot during the last two weeks (by ScHoolboy Q and Rick Ross), but analysts are pegging the album to return to the top spot this week, giving it six total weeks atop the Billboard 200.
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