Zac Efron’s ‘real singing voice’ shocks fans after ‘High School Musical’ demo leaks: ‘Sounds a mess’

Zac Efron’s past vocal abilities aren’t getting rave reviews.

A clip posted on social media Tuesday claims to be a demo of Efron singing the “High School Musical” song “Get’cha Head in the Game.”

Although Efron played the lead character in the 2006 Disney Channel movie — Troy Bolton — it was actually actor and singer Drew Seeley who provided the vocals that ended up getting used.

“20 years after the release we can finally hear his voice,” the post on X reads. “With the date from June 2005 the song has some different adlibs and the instrumental was still under production.”

The two-minute video features the memorable scene in which Efron plays basketball with his teammates while singing.

Some fans weren’t impressed by Efron’s vocals.

“Okay this isn’t the worst but it shows how much he really improved in the later films… he lowkey owes drew seeley for this starting point in his career tho because i would not have been singing along to this version as a kid,” one comment on X reads.

“This sounds a mess,” one fan wrote bluntly.

Another fan chimed in, “Thank god for drew seeley cause omfg my ears!!!!!! They bleeding!!!!”

“No way, that’s why they gave the job to Drew Seeley,” yet another fan commented.

Efron did later sing his own vocals in 2007’s “High School Musical 2” and 2008’s “High School Musical 3: Senior Year.” He also sang his own vocals in 2007’s “Hairspray.”

Although Seeley did audition for the role of Troy, he said he had no bad blood with Efron in an interview with E! News in 2024. The Canadian actor noted that Efron was better suited for the role given that Seeley had a significant age gap with Vanessa Hudgens (who played love interest Gabriella Montez in the “High School Musical” franchise) at the time.

“I was a good five, six years older than Vanessa,” Seeley said. “So in my mind, that had something to do with it. I probably didn’t look right with the lineup of everybody else. And also, Zac is a very talented actor and was great in the role. So, I think they did it right.”

“I was never told by Disney why they ended up using my voice and not Zac’s,” he also shared. “That’s always been a mystery to me.”

Director Kenny Ortega explained that the “High School Musical” songs were “written before Zac got the role,” in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

“So although he could sing, and he had a lovely voice, it wasn’t the voice that the songs were written for,” Ortega said of Efron.

“So he sang everything, and then we dubbed parts of it so that it had greater vocal strength,” he continued, “But the second movie and the third movie, everything was written for him. And that’s important for people to know, that Zac Efron did sing.”