Super Bowl National Anthem 2015: Everything you need to know about Idina Menzel

Idina Menzel has won a Tony Award, sung an Academy Award-winning song and is probably your child’s favorite Disney princess. If you’re only aware of her because of the runaway success of “Let It Go,” or perhaps because John Travolta gleefully butchered her name that one time, there’s a lot more you should know about Idina Menzel.

First of all, she’s a legitimate Broadway icon, having originated two iconic Broadway musical roles in the past 20 years. She’s been singing professionally for over 25 years, starting with being a wedding and bar mitzvah singer at the age of 15. Her first professional theatre job, in 1996, ended up being her first claim to fame.

Menzel was cast as the original Maureen in Rent, garnering her a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical. She later reprised the role in the 2005 movie version of Rent. Here’s her belt-worthy anthem, “Take Me or Leave Me,” in which she and her female lover assert that neither are willing to change their ways:

Rent was also where Menzel met fellow original cast member Taye Diggs, to whom she was married from 2003 until 2014.

After a lengthy run on Rent and several years in successful Broadway shows, she was cast in what would be her second iconic role; one even more successful and lasting: the original Elphaba (AKA the Wicked Witch of the West) in Wicked. The role netted her the Tony for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and gave her what would be (until 2013) her signature song: the 11 o’clock number “Defying Gravity.”

By the time Glee became a haven for musical theatre geeks everywhere, Menzel was already an entrenched Broadway legend and, like many other Broadway stars, including Wicked co-star Kristin Chenoweth, she was cast in a recurring role on the hit FOX show. Menzel happens to look a lot like Glee star Lea Michele, so much so that fans clamored for her to be revealed as Michele’s character’s birth mother. Sure enough, the fanfic became reality. The onscreen mother and daughter bonded over “Poker Face” in a really weird moment, considering the Lady Gaga song is about rough sex and “not bluffin’ with my muffin.”

Menzel’s mainstream breakthrough wouldn’t arrive until she was enlisted to provide the voice for Princess Elsa in the runaway Disney smash Frozen. Elsa’s showstopper “Let It Go” became a legitimate pop hit, peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard charts and marking the first time a Tony Award-winner ever recorded a Top-10 song. The song would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song and to be sung approximately every 10 seconds by every child in the entire world.

It’s been a long and rewarding journey to stardom for Idina Menzel. Now she’s going to perform the national anthem at the biggest sporting event of the year. She’s definitely earned it.