Longtime fans of High School Musical know that Zac Efron isn’t the only vocalist behind his character Troy Bolton’s songs in the first movie.
However, director Kenny Ortega shut down claims that the actor’s voice isn’t featured in the film.
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, the legendary choreographer explained that Efron did, in fact, sing all of the songs in High School Musical. His vocals were mixed with actor Drew Seeley’s.
“The songs were written before Zac got the role,” Ortega said. “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 we dubbed parts of it, so that it had greater vocal strength.”
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Corbin Bleu, Vanessa Hudgens, and Drew Seeley perform onstage in ‘High School Musical: The Concert’ in 2006
It’s no secret that Seeley’s powerhouse voice is prominently featured in High School Musical. He even stood in for Efron during the live concert tour for the film while the actor was making Hairspray. Seeley addressed recording Troy Bolton’s vocals on the Magical Rewind podcast last year.
“I was never told why they did it the way that they did it,” Seeley told hosts Will Friedle and Sabrina Bryan. “But I think that they were within about three, four weeks of shooting the actual film, and they had me and not Zac. Me and the rest of the movie cast all go into the studio for, like, four days straight and record all the songs together. So, yeah, I knew that I was doing that.”
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Ashley Tisdale, Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, director Kenny Ortega, Monique Coleman, and Corbin Bleu pose at the ‘High School Musical 3’ Start of Production Press Conference in 2008
It’s unclear when Efron recorded his parts, but Ortega said it’s a misconception that Efron didn’t sing at all in his breakout role.
“That’s important that people know that Zac Efron did sing,” Ortega said.
The Iron Claw actor sings all of the tracks himself in the subsequent sequels. Seeley went on to star in a different teen musical movie, Another Cinderella Story, alongside Disney Channel alum Selena Gomez.
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