When it comes to multiple talents, very few can boast their title of being a Jack of all trades, however, Zendaya has proven herself to be just that over the years. Starting her career at Disney, she became instantly popular because of her bubbly girl-next-door attitude, acting, and amazing dancing and singing skills on top of it. Later, she proved her insane talent with her 2013 debut album after her own name.
However, ever since that, she has kind of put her music career on hold. While it is entirely possible that she just enjoys portraying different characters way too much for now to focus on anything else, there actually seems to be more to the story.
Zendaya’s mysterious break from the music industry
Zendaya released her very promising debut album in 2013. In fact, her music video Replay from that album was such a hit that it garnered over 200 million views on YouTube in a very short time. As such, people expected her to get even more serious about music and focus on putting out new hits frequently. However, ever since that album, she has strangely kept it quiet about music.
In fact, the only time she does work on it these days seems to be for specific acting projects. Such as, Rewrite the Stars with Zac Efron for their movie The Greatest Showman. And the most popular and most recent one is, of course, All for Us for HBO’s Euphoria, something she is also the executive producer of.
While it is true that her acting schedules keep her way too busy these days, which results in her not being able to focus on music properly, there is actually more to the story. Zendaya once admitted that the reason she kind of turned away from the music industry is because of some people trying to exploit her talent with terrible contracts.
She explained in an interview once, “I stepped away from music on purpose because of bad contracts, to be honest with you.” As a result, although it did make her wary about the music industry, it served as a lesson to read and understand contracts carefully. Something, she claims that she has learned well.
Zendaya prefers anonymity
In another interview, the Oklahoma native explained that there is another reason she is staying away from the music industry for the time being. That is, she actually prefers the sense of anonymity acting provides.
According to her, acting allows people to fall in love with characters, and playing those characters makes her feel less vulnerable. Zendaya noted that her preference for acting is mainly,
“For my own anonymity and like a life of my own which music doesn’t really afford. Like I think when you’re a music artist, you just kind of have to be — it’s your face all the time. It’s you.”
And she seems grateful that not only acting does not require her to do that but rather gives her a privacy cover. Something, a lot of big celebrities struggle with. She further elaborated, “That kind of scared me about music — is like not really being able to have as much of a life.”
As a result, even though there is always hope for the Dune star to make a comeback in the music industry, for now, her main focus is acting. And fans seem happy about that too, as it would mean even more masterpieces coming to life on the big screen for them to experience.
Well, they seem to be in luck as two of the Emmy winner’s upcoming movies, i.e., Luca Guadagnino’s sports-romance Challengers and Dune: Part Two are arriving later this year to make them fall in love with another new character finally.
Challengers are ready to hit the theaters on August 11th, while Dune: Part Two is all set for a November 3rd, 2023 release date.
Source: Showbiz CheatSheet
