God bless Idina Menzel, who has somehow gotten herself into a Christmas song-adjacent competition with the Christmas queen herself Mariah Carey. Menzel was promoting her vaguely Rent-themed Christmas album A Season of Love in an interview on Apple Music with Zane Lowe, who suggested that Menzel should play some Mariah during the show. “No, I don’t want to play her song on my show,†Menzel insists, and then realizes she should probably correct herself, adds “I’m just kidding!†But then, Idina decides to double down, pointing out that she and Mariah are both Long Island girls, and that when Mariah was first discovered, Idina was still stuck playing bar mitzvahs and weddings. “Everywhere I went I was in the shadow of, ‘Have you seen this girl? And she has this crazy range,’†Idina says, “And I was like, ‘I have that too.’†Menzel points out that it took her until her 40s to get a song played on the radio, which of course was the juggernaut that was “Let It Go.†“You’ve just got to stay in it to win it,†she says.
By that point, Idina realizes that she should probably cover herself for trying to strike down Mariah and adds, “by the way, I love her voice and I’m obviously a huge fan.†To that, Lowe wisely points out that “you can’t diss and kiss,†propelling this exciting Idina-Mariah competition that Mariah is definitely not aware of even further forward. “I’m so transparent!†Idina says. We can only hope that this will somehow escalate to the extent that Mariah decides to cover “Let It Go,†or maybe just becomes aware of the existence of Idina’s non-Frozen fall movie Uncut Gems. It’s a good movie, Mariah, maybe you’d like it.