Nearly 20 years since High School Musical turned Zac Efron into a world-renowned heartthrob, fans are abuzz over a newly surfaced clip that claims to reveal his real singing voice — and it’s definitely not the smooth crooning voice of Troy Bolton that they remember.
The viral video, reportedly leaked from an early cut of the 2006 Disney Channel hit, shows Efron, now 38, sounding a bit pitchy while singing “Get’cha Head in the Game.”
“This sounds a mess,” slammed one fan on X, about the clip which has been viewed more than 6 million times.
“Thank god for drew seeley cause omfg my ears!!!!!!” slammed another fan, referring to Canadian singer Drew Seeley, 43, who secretly handled many of the vocals for Efron’s character.
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There’s good reason for the vocal tag team: In a 2024 interview, director Kenny Ortega told Entertainment Tonight, “The songs were written before Zac got the role,” adding, “so, although he could sing and he had a lovely voice, it wasn’t the voice that the songs were written for. So he sang everything, and then we dubbed parts of it so that it had greater vocal strength.”
Still, fans are having fun pretending to be Simon Cowell à la American Idol.
“Disney Channel said, ‘at the end of the day, this is a BUSINESS,’” another person commented. “And they did the absolute right thing with having Drew sing! The movie would have been draggged if they kept Zac’s original vocals (which aren’t terrible, but can not lead off a franchise musical film.”