Zendaya made her long-awaited return to the stage thanks to a surprise Coachella performance with Labrinth. It had been around seven years since she had last performed on stage, but Zendaya's career has always included music in some way. From her early days singing and dancing on Disney Channel, to showing off her skills on reality shows both off and on Disney, and even lending her vocals to songs on other film and television projects she is a part of. While the actress has certainly built a solid acting and producing career, even she admits that music will always have a special place in her heart.
With the seemingly random stage appearance, and of course her continued involvement with Labrinth and Euphoria, many are wondering if this means the actress will finally be making a return to music and dropping her highly anticipated sophomore album, or perhaps some fresh music after all this time.
Zendaya Gained Popularity During Her Time With Disney
Zendaya's original claim to fame was her long-time work with Disney Channel. She got her start in 2010 thanks to the Disney Channel Original show Shake It Up, which also featured a young Bella Thorne. This show helped highlight not just Zendaya's acting skills, but her ability to sing and dance as well.
She went on to star in several other Disney Channel projects, including the movie Frenemies and Zapped, a Disney Channel reality series called PrankStars, and KC Undercover. Working with Disney got Zendaya plenty of exposure and also helped make the young actress a decent amount of money.
The actress allegedly earned around $162,000 for the film Zapped, $140,000 for her three seasons on Shake It Up!, $284,000 for Frenemies, and around $400,000 per season of KC Undercover. Zendaya also focused on other endeavors when she wasn't filling her time working with Disney.
The young actress ended up competing on Dancing With the Stars when she was just sixteen years old.
The show earned the young star $10,000 for the third and fourth weeks, $20,000 for the fifth and sixth weeks, $30,000 for the seventh and eighth weeks, and $50,000 for the ninth and tenth weeks. It also once again showcased Zendaya's ability to dance.
She Released Some Solo Music Before Focusing On Acting
Zendaya's singing career started when she was fairly young. She grew up in a theater environment thanks to her mother. She also appeared on Kidz Bop in 2009 to sing Katy Perry's Hot n Cold. Disney also gave her the opportunity to show off her vocal skills on Shake It Up!
Her work on the series lead to a recording contract with Hollywood Records in 2012 and her single Replay ended up performing incredibly well, earning her a spot on the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Her self title album Zendaya followed a year later followed by a tour.
It seemed like the actress was gearing up to release more music by 2016, but it never ended happened. Even with a shift over to Republic Records, Zendaya opted to back away from the music industry because of "bad contracts." This did not stop her from contributing her talents to other projects.
She has singing credits on the film The Greatest Showman, which also features singing from Zac Efron and Hugh Jackman, and has also collaborated with Labrinth, whose music is heavily featured in the HBO original series Euphoria.
Zendaya Surprised Everyone With Her Coachella Appearance
The last time Zendaya performed what can be considered a full concert was in 2015. This is likely why the crowd at Coachella was so surprised when she joined Labrinth on stage to perform some of the songs they worked on together for Euphoria.
The performance opened with the song I'm Tired, which started right as Zendaya was making her way onto the stage, and eventually led into All For Us. Video of the performance showed the crowd going wild for the performance.
The Spider-Man star expressed her extreme surprise and gratitude for everyone's overwhelmingly positive reaction to her return to the stage via social media and also made it a point to thank Labrinth for making the surprise happen last minute.
She has admitted that she still has love in her for music, and is prominently featured on Labrinth's most recent release The Feels off of their album Ends & Begins. The actress's vocals also make an appearance in a promotional video the artist has released on his social media, which sent the comments sections into a frenzy.
It remains unknown if she will make more music for Euphoria's highly anticipated third season, but fans are hopeful that this means Zendaya is finally making her long-awaited comeback to music, even if it is just through working with other artists like Labrinth.
