Maddie Ellis is a weekend editor at TODAY Digital.
It's been 10 years since Idina Menzel was announced onstage at the 2014 Oscars with a memorable pronunciation flub by John Travolta. And Menzel is once again taking the moment in stride. Travolta was set to introduce Menzel for a performance of “Let It Go” from “Frozen” at the Academy Awards ceremony on March 2, 2014.
The unexpected result went viral and became part of internet meme history. “Please welcome the wickedly talented, one and only, Adele Dazeem,” Travolta said. Menzel celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the moment with a TikTok video posted March 2, gently poking fun at the name flub by wishing “Adele Dazeem” a happy birthday. “Hey Adele Dazeem, it’s Idina Menzel. I just wanted to say, happy birthday. Sending you so much love and positive energy, I hope you have the best, best day,” she said in the video, before singing the “Happy Birthday” song. 'Happy 10th birthday, Adele Dazeem!' she captioned the post. The name flub is one of the most viral Oscars memes, joining the ranks of the “Moonlight” best picture mix-up and the Selfie . A few days before the 10-year anniversary, Vanity Fair published an “oral history” of the Adele Dazeem moment. In the days after Travolta uttered those two words, it became the butt of late night jokes — on “The Tonight Show,” Jimmy Fallon quipped, “I’m your host, Jimmy Fallon, or as John Travolta would call me, Jelan Fejallah” — plenty of parody social media accounts and Slate’s famous “Adele Dazeem Name Generator.” For example, TODAY host Carson Daly became Christian Deeza. Travolta released a statement on March 4, 2014, addressing the virality. “I’ve been beating myself up all day. 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 Sunday night!” he said in a statement through his publicist. Travolta explained how the mishap happened on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in 2015. Amidst backstage confusion, Travolta said he ran into Goldie Hawn, leaving him “starstruck” and frazzled. Onstage, he also learned last minute that his cue cards would feature phonetic spelling of Menzel’s name, he said. “So I go out there and I get to her thing and I thought, ‘Hmm,’” Travolta told Kimmel with a confused look on his face. He said he didn't recognize the name as a result. “It was just a phonetic spelling, but I didn’t rehearse it that way,” he said. Menzel, for her part, has said in recent years that while her initial feelings were, “I’m finally here and this guy screwed up my name,” she looks back on the incident fondly. “It ended up being one of the best things that happened for my career because all the people that had no idea who I was were like ... ‘Who is this girl?’” she told TODAY’s Willie Geist in 2021. Plus, she got her revenge at the 2015 Oscars. Menzel and Travolta were paired up to present at the following year’s ceremony. Menzel welcomed the “Grease” actor to the stage as her “very dear friend, Glom Gazingo.” “I deserve that,” Travolta said. “But you! You, my darling, my beautiful, my wickedly talented Idina Menzel! Is that right?” “You did it! That was so good!” she responded. “It’s not like it’s going to follow me around for the rest of my life or anything.”
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