Zendaya thinks the music industry “sucks you dry a little bit.”
The 22-year-old actress kick-started her pop career in 2011 when she released her singles ‘Swag It Out’ and ‘Watch Me’, before dropping her self-titled album in 2013 after she was signed by Hollywood Records the year before.
But she has admitted she has no plans to release any more music any time soon because she felt like the nitty-gritty industry took away her passion for singing.
Speaking to Paper magazine, she said: “I think the [music] industry takes a little bit of passion away from you. It sucks you dry a little bit. What I thought I wanted, it’s not what I want anymore, [especially] when I think about what I had to deal with in the music industry.
“If anyone asks my number one advice, for [the] industry in general but mostly the music industry, it’s look over those contracts, every single word, and don’t sign anything that isn’t worth it to you. You are worth more than they will say.”
Zendaya is now focusing on her acting after landing the role of Anne Wheeler in ‘The Greatest Showman’ alongside Zac Efron and Hugh Jackman last year.
But the former Disney star doesn’t want to box herself into one particular career path as she’d like to open up lots of avenues to help make a change.
She explained: “What kind of stories do I want to tell? What kind of opportunities can I give? How can I make the change, how can I add more voices? Am I going to want to direct, am I going to want to write it?… There’s this misconstrued idea that once you make it, there’s only room for yourself. I disagree. Once you’re able to make room for yourself, you try to make as many freakin’ rooms as you can. I’m still at the beginning of my career and I don’t have all the power in the world, because, at the end of the day, a lot of the power still lies with people who have been making stuff since before I was born, who are one narrative and one color. Now, it’s just about getting to that point where I can do that on my own. If I wait for things to happen, they might not ever happen.”
22-year-old Zendaya is an American actress and singer. She started her career as a child model and backup dancer, before landing a role as Rocky Blue on the Disney Channel. She released her self-titled album ‘Zendaya’ in 2013 and it found great success; making it to number 51 on the Billboard 200 chart.
