Zendaya contemplates return to music: ‘Maybe one day’
Zendaya is riding a wave of blockbuster success, starring in films such as “Dune: Part Two” and “Challengers.” But the Oakland actress hasn’t left her music roots behind.
“I love music, and it’s something that’s been special to me,” Zendaya said during an appearance on “The Jennifer Hudson Show” on Friday, April 26.
The Emmy-winning star of HBO’s “Euphoria” released her self-titled debut album in 2013 and performed alongside English rapper and producer Labrinth at last year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, but revealed that the challenges of navigating the music industry soured the experience.
“It didn’t kill the joy of music,” Zendaya said, “but it’s when you put music and business together, sometimes it can not feel so good.”
Although she hasn’t ruled out returning to the studio for a much-anticipated follow-up to her debut, Zendaya remains cautious about her musical future. “I think if the right timing and it came … again, I like creating it for myself,” she told Hudson. “But if there was a moment, maybe I would put out a little something.”
However, she quickly cautioned fans not to set expectations too high.
“Don’t be crazy,” she said, with a laugh. “We’ll see. But maybe one day.”
Zendaya, who also collaborated with Chris Brown on the 2016 single “Something New” and upcoming BottleRock Napa Valley performer Dominic Fike on 2022’s “Elliot’s Song,” said appearing at Coachella in 2023 was a way to push herself to overcome her lifelong stage fright. When she was first approached about performing with Labrinth, she said she turned it down at first.
“I have bad memories of performing live when I was a kid,” Zendaya told Hudson.
Despite her childhood shyness, which her mother Claire Stoermer recalled in a 2020 interview with the Chronicle, Zendaya eventually recognized the moment as an opportunity to conquer her fears and ultimately embraced the chance to perform alongside Labrinth.
“I went to myself, ‘Dude, you can’t run from this. You can’t hide from this forever,’ ” Zendaya recalled. “‘You’re gonna want to be on a stage and perform live once in your life at least.’ And what better place to do it than with someone that I admire and I respect.”
But finding time to create music amid her thriving acting career might be difficult.