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Credit: Getty Images

Trying Something New with something old from TLC has served Zendaya wonders. According to the singer, the track released in February is a prelude to what we can expect on a forthcoming album. “Something New is a nice little taste of where I’m headed,” Zendaya told GRAZIA. “The album is all about documenting me becoming a woman and learning to love.”

The 19-year-old noted her new sound, inspired by TLC’s 90’s brassy classic Creep  – and a departure from her last big single Replay – was a means to showcase how hard she’d been working on her voice. “I’ve improved,” she says. “Coming from the Disney Channel, you’d got to work extra hard to get people’s attention.”

And, while the singer croons her way across the sultry bridge to RnB land, the Oakland-born star looks to old school tunes for music thought. “I listen to a lot of older songs, I don’t necessarily listen to the new stuff.”

Behold, Zendaya’s playlist as told to GRAZIA

Usher
The Dallas-born eight-time Grammy Award winner released his first RnB album a decade before Zendaya was born. But it was his Confessions album in 2006 (Billboard ranked this as the top solo album of the 2000s decade) and the song Bad Girl that got the then-10-year-old’s attention. “This song is one of my favourites”, says Zendaya.

2PAC
Zendaya would have been just 13 days old when this incredible talent was murdered in a drive-by shooting at an intersection in Las Vegas in 1996. Still, his music didn’t stop influencing the millennial generation, including the Replay singer.


L
uther Vandross
Genre switch! There’s an errant YouTube clip floating around the internet of Zendaya giving James Corden a run for his carpool karaoke cash. It only has 590 views. The song? Take You Out by Vandross.


Stevie Wonder
There’s something beautifully humbling about a 19-year-old in 2016 counting Stevie Wonder as one of her favourite go-to’s for inspiration. 25 Grammy Awards and the Lifetime Achievement Award, Wonder is the pinnacle of success Zendaya would no doubt want to emulate. 


Michael Jackson
Travel back to 2012 and see a rare clip of Zendaya singing MJ’s Smile. The singer recently admitted there was a period of her life where she even dressed like The King Of Pop.

Something New is out now.

Title image: @2pac