Zendaya on ‘Right Timing’ for When She Plans to Release New Music: ‘Maybe One Day’

Zendaya‘s music career has taken a back seat to her acting, but the Emmy-winning actress has been giving fans nuggets of musical gold over the years. 

During an appearance on Friday’s episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show, the Challengers star reflects on her musical career, sharing that when the “right timing” comes, she may release more music again. 

“I love music, and it’s something that’s been special to me,” the 27-year-old actress told Hudson, who is also an actress and musician. “I think being in the music industry, maybe it, it didn’t kill the joy of music, but it’s when you put music and business together. Sometimes it cannot feel so good.”

To date, Zendaya has released a self-titled debut studio album in 2013, been featured on seven albums — six of which are soundtracks for TV and film productions — and appeared on numerous singles with other artists. Her latest projects have been singles for her hit HBO series, Euphoria, which have sent fans into a frenzy for more music from her.

During last year’s Coachella, she joined GRAMMY winner Labrinth onstage to perform the final two songs of his set — “I’m Tired” and “All for Us,” both of which were featured in their award-winning HBO series. The epic surprise marked Zendaya’s first live performance in seven years.

After HBO released “I’m Tired,” Zendaya’s collaboration with Labrinth written for the season 2 finale of Euphoria, the star took to social media to address her fans directly about her decision to step back from making music.

“I stepped away from music quite a while ago, for a number of reasons, but I still really love it, so the kindness and support I’ve received the past few days just for a little tiny toe dip back into some music means the absolute world to me..thanks<3,” she tweeted at the time.

Recalling her guest appearance at Coachella stage, Zendaya gushes over Labrinth to Jennifer, calling him a “wonderful person” and revealing that she initially turned the performance down. “He asked me if I wanted to come out and perform and immediately I was like ‘Oh, absolutely not.’ I was like ‘I can’t do that,'” she tells Hudson, adding that she thought she’d have “stage fright.”

“I have bad memories of performing live when I was a kid,” Zendaya recalls. Despite her negative experiences, she convinced herself she “can’t run from this forever.”

As for releasing music on her own again, Zendaya teases that “one day” she might return to her musician roots.

“You know, I think if the right timing and it came, because I like creating it for myself, but if there was a moment, maybe I would, you know, put out a little something,” the Dune actress shares. “Don’t get crazy! We’ll see, but maybe one day.”

While chatting with Spider-Man: No Way Home co-star Andrew Garfield for Variety’s Actors on Actors discussion in 2022, Zendaya quipped that she didn’t see a pop star trajectory in her career. 

“I was talking to Sam [Levinson] about this earlier. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I could ever be a pop star,'” the actress recalled while discussing how much actors project onto the public eye. “It’s because as an actor, there’s a level of anonymity that I get to have, which I really like, and I get to sort my stuff, whatever that is, through a character, and nobody needs to know about it.”

She added that “in other forms and other mediums, it’s all you all the time. I like the idea that somebody else, meaning Rue, gets to take on that stuff.”

“Boundaries. Learning what’s for me,” Zendaya concluded.

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