Zac Efron’s past singing ability has not been praised highly.
A clip posted to social media on Tuesday purports to be a demo of Efron singing the song “Get’cha Head in the Game” from “High School Musical.”
Efron played the main character Troy Bolton in the 2006 Disney Channel film, but the vocals were actually provided by actor and singer Drew Seeley.
“20 years after its release, his voice is finally being heard,” X’s post reads. “Dated in June 2005, the song had some different ad-libs and the instrumental was still being worked on.”
The two-minute video includes a memorable scene of Efron playing basketball with his teammates while singing.
Some fans were unimpressed with Efron’s vocals.
“Well, this isn’t the worst, but it shows how much he’s grown in his later films… He owes this springboard in his career to Drew Seeley, to say the least, because I wouldn’t have been singing along to this version when I was a kid,” one comment on X said.
One fan bluntly wrote, “This sounds like a mess.”
Another fan chimed in: “Thank you for drawing Seeley, my ears hurt!!!!! They’re bleeding!”
“No way, that’s why they gave that job to Drew Seeley,” yet another fan commented.
Representatives for Mr. Efron did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
He later sang his own vocals in 2007’s High School Musical 2 and 2008’s High School Musical 3: Senior Year. He also sang his own vocals on 2007’s “Hairspray.”
Seeley auditioned for the role of Troy, but said in an interview with E! that he and Efron had no bad blood. News for 2024. The Canadian actor said Efron was better suited for the role, given the significant age difference between Seeley and Vanessa Hudgens (who played girlfriend Gabriella Montez in the High School Musical series) at the time.
“I was five or six years older than Vanessa,” Seeley said. “So, in my mind, that had something to do with it. It probably didn’t fit with the rest of the lineup. And Zack is a very talented actor and played the role wonderfully. So I think they did it right.”
“Disney never told me why they decided to use my voice instead of Zack’s,” he also said. “It’s always been a mystery to me.”
Director Kenny Ortega explained in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that the High School Musical songs were “written before Zack got the role.”
“I mean, he could sing and had a nice voice, but it wasn’t the voice that songs were written for,” Ortega said of Efron.
“So he sang everything, and we dubbed some of it to give it more vocal strength,” he continued, “but in the second movie and the third movie, everything was written for him. And it’s important for people to know, Zac Efron sang it.”
