We’re no strangers to celebrities constantly trying out new endeavours to add to their “multihyphenate titles”. Sometimes it works out, but other times a “you should stick to your day job” moment arises.
Well here are 17 celebs who gave music careers the ol’ college try before deciding to stick to what they know best:
1.
In 2011, Kim Kardashian threw her musical hat into the ring with a single… and it didn’t “do amazing sweetie”.
Kim released “Jam (Pump It Up)” to almost no fanfare, but thankfully the money that was made off of the track went to charity.
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When asked about her single, Kim stated, “If there’s one thing in life that I wish I didn’t do … I don’t like it when people kind of dabble into things they shouldn’t be. And that I don’t think I should have. Like, what gave me the right to think I could be a singer? Like, I don’t have a good voice.”
2.
Jennifer Love Hewitt has had multiple stints as a musical artist.
In 2002, we saw her graceful return to music. Then signed with a new label, Jennifer released the album BareNaked.
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The album actually charted, peaking at #37 and featuring the single, “How Do I Deal”, which peaked at #59. She’s released a couple of more songs since then, but nothing that’s gained a lot of attention.
3.
Tyra Banks released a single in 2004, but she was not named America’s Next Top Musical Artist.
When asked why she pursued music Tyra stated, “After retiring from modelling, the only way I thought I could continue to work that stage that I loved so much was I had to sing in order to do it.”
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The song was called “Shake Ya Body” and featured the contestants from series two of America’s Next Top Model (who were doing this as a modelling challenge for an episode) in the subsequent music video. The track and music video debuted on that same episode of ANTM, and while it ended up being the highest-rated episode of the show at that time, Tyra didn’t feel the push or need from the public to continue music.
4.
Lindsay Lohan actually showed a lot of popstar promise but, for reasons, had to take a step back from being a singer.
That following year, Lindsay released her second album, “A Little More Personal (Raw)”, and even though it did pretty well, Lindsay’s break from the spotlight also meant a break from music.
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Although, now 17 years following that second album, Lindsay has since released a single called, “Back to Me” and stated that she isn’t against returning to music in some form. She told Who What Wear, “If you hear music from me, it will hopefully be in a movie musical,” she explained to the publication, before adding, I’ve done a ton of songs that are sitting, waiting. Maybe five years down the line, I’ll do another album.”
5.
Believe it or not, Ashley Tisdale had an entire music career that had nothing to do with being Sharpay Evans.
Ashley went gold once in 2006 with her debut pop album, “Headstrong” and again in 2009 with her pop-rock album “Guilty Pleasure”.
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For 10 years, she went musically quiet and went forward solely with acting and voice-acting, even after exiting the Disney bubble. However, 2019 saw the fateful return of Ashley Tisdale to music with her third album “Symptoms”. When asked about her return she told Paper Magazine, “It’s been so long since I have done music, I always said I was not going to do music just to put something out there. It’d have to mean something.”
6.
Before becoming Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. took a stab at becoming a music man.
The knowledge of this album is now more of a niche anecdote, along with RDJ’s other musical endeavours.
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Aside from a quip said by Jeremy Renner’s MCU character, Hawkeye, in Captain America: Civil War — RDJ’s musical pursuits remain to be a lesser-known joke. Robert Downey Jr. had this to say about the idea of going forward with music, “I do have a real busy film career and I’m a dad, and I don’t necessarily see that [more] is beneficial to the public at large or my desires in the music industry”.
7.
You can love or hate that Eddie Murphy makes music, but it’s undeniable that he’s actually got a few bops!
Despite the commercial success, Eddie hasn’t released new music in decades — but he apparently never stopped working on it.
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Not even mentioning Shrek, Eddie Murphy has said that he never stopped creating music, he just won’t release it. He told BET, “Whatever muscle I use to be funny, I have a muscle to do music, and I use them both all the time. I’ve never stopped doing music. I stopped putting it out though, because… The audience gets weirded out by it. And I don’t want to be that guy.”
8.
Scarlett Johansson’s career actually involves many musical pursuits… including being a theatre kid!
Scarlett hasn’t released an album since 2009, but has continued to sing in various projects.
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Music is definitely still in “ScarJo’s” heart — since 2009, she sang the song “Bullet” on the Steel Train album “Terrible Thrills Vol. 1.”, the song “One Whole Hour” for the documentary Wretches & Jabberers, a song for The Jungle Book, and two songs for Sing.
She even led an all-female pop band called The Singles that received a cease-and-desist order, after putting out only one song, from another band of the same name for trademark infringement.
9.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell was a super popular “one-hit wonder” in Japan… no, really!
Although Naomi has never commented about her shortlived singing career, decades late reflections on the album actually show way more appreciation for the project now than originally.
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Back in ’94, producers for Naomi’s album spoke for her, telling Hot Press, “She doesn’t want to make a typical record, she wouldn’t drag me in [the studio] just for the sake of it.” It seems that recent reviews of the album see something more similar in Naomi’s music to what the producers, writers, and the model herself saw all along. Maybe she was just ahead of her time?
10.
Keanu Reeves’ talents don’t end at leading multiple huge film franchises — he was also in a band!
In an interview with GQ, Keanu said he “felt bad for the other guys in the band having to face the skepticism society reserves for moonlighting actors.”
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None of the tracks from the albums really charted, but in spite of that and because of the star power of Keanu Reeves — the band went on to tour in Australia and New Zealand with Bon Jovi, open for David Bowie, and perform on The Tonight Show in 2000.
11.
We’ve known Brie Larson had a great voice since Scott Pilgrim vs. The World — but she actually did pursue music as well.
Brie Larson’s music career has pretty much been forgotten about at this point, in favour of her impressive acting resume.
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But not her performance of “Black Sheep” in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World which was so iconic that the fan outcry to get it added to the film’s digital soundtrack finally worked — “Black Sheep” is now streamable as it should’ve always been!
12.
Prior to La La Land, Ryan Gosling shared his voice as one-half of a rock duo.
Ryan didn’t originally intend to sing on the band’s album at all!
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According to W Magazine, the original plans for the songs on the album were to only have vocals be done by the Silverlake Children’s Choir they collaborated with — but inspired by the children, Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields decided to sing along with the kids and keep those recordings. The rock duo went on to have one tour, where they teamed up with more local choirs of the cities they visited.
13.
Zoë Kravitz definitely got the music gene from her dad and ran with it for a period of time.
Zoe has stated to Vice, “If it were up to me, I would still have people not know who makes the music. In this day and age people are so quick to judge… but I don’t have the intention of being a popstar. I don’t really care if people like it or not, but if they do, that’s awesome.”
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Most recently, LOLAWOLF had a comeback after five years with the album “Tenderness” in 2020 — but it’s clear that music is more of an outlet for Zoë, and acting is her main gig. She’s pretty stellar at both crafts though.
14.
On top of questionable candles, Gwyneth Paltrow has also released some singles.
I hope the “Gleeks” also remember that yes, Gwyneth ~was~ on the show, and it was ~not~ a fever dream.
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According to Grazia Magazine, Gwyneth’s infamous character on Glee, Holly Holliday, was written into the script solely for her to show off her “singing and dancing abilities”. Because of this character, Gwyneth went on to win the 2011 Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series and meet her husband, Brad Falchuk… and just forgot to release an album.
15.
And last but not least, Tom Hardy was a rapper. It’s true.
Whose musical debut are you actually a fan of? Let us know in the comments!
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/tori_honore/celebs-who-attempted-music-careers