Since its inception in 1955, The Mickey Mouse Membership has launched the careers of kid stars turned teen idols in virtually each technology. Nevertheless it wasn’t till the rise of the Disney Channel and The All-New Mickey Mouse Membership, that it turned the catalyst for contemporary music. From the primary wave of Mouseketeers to at this time’s millennial Disney Channel stars, these singers have bought tens of hundreds of thousands of albums and maintained pop domination nicely into their 30s. With many of those former card-carrying members experiencing profession comebacks, we rely down 10 of the most important Disney channel stars turned pop singers.
Hearken to the perfect Disney Channel hits on Apple Music and Spotify.
10: Vanessa Hudgens
The actress and singer could eternally be synonymous together with her breakout position within the Disney smash Excessive Faculty Musical, however Vanessa Hudgens has proved there’s life after commencement. Even earlier than becoming a member of the Disney household, Hudgens was headed in the direction of a profession in indie movies, but it surely was Excessive Faculty Musical that may change her profession trajectory, securing her a recording deal and recurring roles in different Disney reveals, and, later, Excessive Faculty Musical 2. She made her recording debut with V, in 2006, which spawned the hit single “Say OK” and was licensed gold.
Hudgens shortly adopted it up with one other slice of soulful pop, Recognized, in 2008, and appeared in Excessive Faculty Musical 3: Senior Yr that very same yr. For the subsequent 5 years, Hudgens targeted on performing and received over critics as Rizzo in Fox’s Grease: Stay. Extra lately, she’s made a welcome return to the charts, first with “Reminding Me,” a duet with Canadian singer-songwriter Shawn Hook, and the collaborative monitor “Lay With Me,” recorded with Los Angeles-based digital duo Phantoms.
9: Zendaya
Since making her debut on the Disney sitcom Shake It Up at age 14, Zendaya has rewritten the script for a way Disney channel stars make it to “it girl” trajectory. She turned the position mannequin for ladies in every single place, after enjoying a teen spy who not solely was a math whiz however an professional in karate in KC Undercover, and she or he efficiently negotiated her contract to place her within the producer’s chair at age 16. Throughout her Shake It Up days, Zendaya made her musical debut, releasing a number of singles she carried out on the present, together with 2011’s “Watch Me” and “Swag It Out.” In 2013, she dropped her self-titled debut album, had a viral hit with “Replay” and have become the youngest particular person to compete on Dancing With the Stars, all whereas incomes her high-school diploma. Zendaya additionally turned one of many solely Disney Channel stars who concurrently landed Hollywood main roles throughout her time on the community, starring in each Spider-Man and The Best Showman. Extra lately, she’s grow to be the breakout star of HBO’s adolescent dystopian nightmare sequence, Euphoria.
8: The Jonas Brothers
Due to the Disney impact, brothers Joe, Kevin and Nick Jonas went from being an area household band bumming round New Jersey to changing into teen heartthrobs. Earlier than they had been family names, they launched their debut album, the pop-punk-anthem-stuffed It’s About Time, in 2006. Quickly sufficient, they’d developed a faithful fanbase on TV, first on Camp Rock then as themselves on the unique sequence Jonas, and in numerous live performance movies. In 2007, they went from opening act to headliner with the discharge of Jonas Brothers, which debuted at No.5 on the Billboard chart and solidified their standing as the most important boy band of the mid-00s.
After 4 studio albums collectively, Joe and Nick Jonas ventured into new territory – Nick to kind a brand new band, The Administration, in 2010, and Joe to launch his solo album, Fastlife, in 2011. Whereas Nick scored chart gold together with his solo follow-ups, Nick Jonas (2014) and Final Yr Was Sophisticated (2016), and boasts some enviable performing credit each on Smash and Scream Queens, Joe went on to entrance the funk-pop outfit DNCE. In 2019, the brothers made their triumphant return with their fifth studio album, Happiness Begins, notching their third No.1 album and reasserting their chart dominance a decade after their final launch in 2009.
7: Hilary Duff
Even earlier than Hannah Montana, there was one other loveable woman subsequent door who captured the hearts of teenage America: Lizzie McGuire, aka Hilary Duff. Due to her starring position on the Disney sitcom named after her character, Duff turned a franchise, her face emblazoned on all the pieces from lunchboxes to bedding units. One yr after the present debuted, Duff received to point out off her vocal skills by enjoying a pop star in The Lizzie McGuire Film, that includes her debut single, “Why Not,” which she shortly parlayed right into a recording profession.
She made her full-length debut with the Christmas album Santa Claus Lane and utterly shed her Disney persona on her breakout album, Metamorphosis, in 2003. The album shot to No.2 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the hit singles that Duff would eternally been recognized for: “So Yesterday,” “Come Clean” and “Sixteen.” Since her debut, the actress/singer has launched 5 studio albums, spanning the candy pop-rock of Hilary Duff to the floor-filling electro-pop of Dignity (2007) and Sparks (2015). In early 2020, Duff returned with new music, protecting Third Eye Blind’s “Never Let You Go,” together with producer RAC and her husband Matthew Koma. Not solely does it mark the couple’s first monitor collectively, but it surely additionally marks Duff’s first new track in virtually 4 years.
6: Selena Gomez
This former baby star had already racked up a sequence of performing credit earlier than becoming a member of the subsequent wave of Disney Channel stars at age 15. Visitor appearances on different teen sitcoms led to Gomez starring on her personal present, The Wizards Of Waverly Place. Disney would even be the springboard for her transition to singing, after she recorded the theme tune to Wizards earlier than making her full-length debut with Kiss & Inform in 2009. Breaking from the Disney solo star custom, Gomez went down a extra rock’n’roll route, assembling her personal band, Selena Gomez And The Scene, to create successful pop-rock album. Just a few gold information and have movies later, Gomez was able to make her solo assertion with 2013’s Stars Dance, a melange of R&B, EDM and dubstep. Membership hits would grow to be her inventory in commerce, with collaborations with Kygo (“It Ain’t Me”) and Marshmello (“Wolves”), but it surely’s her 2015 album, Revival, on which she actually shined, sharing writing and producing credit and showcasing the vulnerability that may outline her songs. After a string of hit singles “Bad Liar” and “Back To You,” Gomez returned in music in earnest, releasing her critically-acclaimed No.1 album Uncommon.
5: Demi Lovato
Not each baby star has been blessed with highly effective pipes, however Demi Lovato makes it look straightforward. Since her breakout position within the TV film Camp Rock, Lovato stays certainly one of Disney’s most bankable stars, all the time experimenting with the pop components and unleashing her vocals with weapon-like precision. Lovato’s transition from teen pop sensation to grownup pop icon has not been with out hardship, however it’s her profound honesty about her struggles that has made her a task mannequin to younger followers. She even managed to show her turmoil into artwork with empowering hits like “Skyscraper.” Throughout six studio albums, she’s gone from bubble-gum pop to R&B anthems and reached the higher echelons of the charts with “Sorry Not Sorry,” which hit No.6 on the Billboard Scorching 100. On her 2017 launch, Inform Me You Love Me, she created a brand new basic: a rejoinder to the critics who stated female-driven pop was useless. In 2020, the singer made her comeback with an emotional efficiency of her new ballad, “Anyone” on the Grammy Awards, adopted by the infectious “I Love Me.”
4: Christina Aguilera
A product of the teenager pop explosion of the 00s, Christina Aguilera, alongside Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, received her begin on The New Mickey Mouse Membership and dominated the charts in 1999 with perky pop hits like “Genie In A Bottle,” “What A Girl Wants” and “Come On Over.” Her debut single, “Reflection,” from the 1998 Disney animated movie Mulan, launched the world to an astonishing voice that belied her 17 years. Aguilera shortly set herself aside from the pack as a vocalist with immense energy and vary, each on her debut and her sophomore launch, Stripped, which revealed a extra sensual aspect to the singer on hits like “Dirrty.” A continuing chameleon, Aguilera was all the time bold: from octave-busting anthems to musical clap-backs to misogyny, she did all of it with model, working vocal rings across the competitors.
3: Justin Timberlake
Together with Britney and Xtina, Justin Timberlake was a pop torch-bearer for the frost-tipped technology of the Y2K period. The previous Mouseketeer went from *NSYNC heartthrob to pop’s main solo star sooner than you possibly can say “Cry Me A River.” Even throughout his boy-band days, JT and his well-known falsetto pushed the group into R&B waters, setting the stage for his “SexyBack” period and his first two chart-smashing solo albums. With the assistance of The Neptunes and Timbaland, Timberlake’s fusion of slick R&B with pop hooks would flip him right into a scorching commodity, racking up No.1 hits and platinum albums over the course of a decade. Like a lot of his fellow Disney Channel stars, he lately returned to his roots for Man Of The Woods, however his pop confections can nonetheless be discovered on numerous soundtracks.
2: Miley Cyrus
Having spent most of her adolescence because the squeaky-clean rock-star-next-door, Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus took a literal wrecking ball to her former alter ego and launched the world to a wild baby together with her breakout smash, the appropriately titled “Bangerz,” in 2013. As certainly one of Disney’s largest success tales, Cyrus has made a profession of embodying totally different personas, from the fresh-faced Hannah Montana, in 2006, to the twerking provocateur on the MTV VMAs, again to earnest singer-songwriter on her newest album, Youthful Now. Reinvention is nothing new within the pop world, however Cyrus has skilled extra chart successes and sound shifts than musicians twice her age. Having proved herself to be greater than only a pop fluke, she has the vocal chops and effervescent character to tug off each iteration.
1: Britney Spears
Britney Spears shouldn’t be a pop star, however a cultural phenomenon. The previous Mickey Mouse Membership member turned teen pop into America’s largest export. At simply 16, she launched the world-conquering No. 1 single “… Baby One More Time,” blurring the strains between teen and grownup pop and promoting over 10 million copies of her debut album in a yr. The Max Martin-penned single would set the stage for her profession as one of the crucial profitable pop divas, whose bundle of singing, dancing, and provocative stage presence turned the gold normal that every one others adopted. Her Rolling Stone cowl is eternally seared in our collective reminiscences, and she or he’s delivered hit after hit throughout her studio albums. Regardless of her private setbacks, Spears presents a masterclass in profession longevity, juggling Vegas residencies, and has achieved the final word signal of success: a first-name calling card.
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