Idina Menzel

Best known for her Tony-nominated performance in the Broadway smash Rent, singer/actress Idina Menzel made her solo debut in 1998 with the pop-soul effort Still I Can't Be Still. The joined the cast Wicked in 2003 and appeared on the cast recording that same year, while 2004 saw her releasing the album Here. The following year, Menzel appeared on the soundtrack to the television show Desperate Housewives, and a duet with Ray Charles (which the pair had recorded back in 1998) found its way onto the tribute album Genius & Friends. In 2007, a dance version of Wicked's "Defying Gravity" became Menzel's first club hit. A year later she landed on the major label Warner Bros. and released a new album, I Stand.