It’s finals week, and if you’re anything like us at Her Campus WPUNJ, you’re looking for ways to procrastinate, too. But we figure that if you’re going to waste your study time on the internet, you may as well be entertained. So we’ve compiled a list of celebrities with vocal talents that might surprise you.
Robert Downey Jr. was listed as 6th on last year’s Glamour Magazine “Sexiest Men” list – and we have to agree! RDJ’s career has been on the up-and-up lately; we can’t get enough of him. For those collegiettes who don’t know, this daddy of two is well-known for his roles as Iron Man in Marvel’s films of the same name as well as in the past year’s summer blockbuster The Avengers. What might not be well-known is the album he released in 2007, titled The Futurist. The record features ten tracks, all performed and most written by RDJ. Below, you can watch RDJ as he performs “A Man Like Me.” (P.S. He also plays the piano!) What can the man not do?!
2. Chris Evans
Chris Evans has played three comic book heroes (Captain America, Jensen from The Losers, & Human Torch in The Fantastic Four series) and one villain (Lucas Lee in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), but he’s also famous for his charming smile and his super-sexy physique. What he isn’t famous for? His voice – at least, not yet. Chris showcased his singing talents first in 2001 R-rated parody flick Not Another Teen Movie (Be forewarned: the video/audio are NSFW). And then he showed off his voice again more recently in 2011’s rom-com What’s Your Number?. We managed to stalk down some audio of Chris singing below, but you’ll need to watch the movie to hear more. It’s worth it – we promise.
Scarlett Johansson is one of the most popular actresses, and it seems like she’s always on-screen nowadays – not that we’re complaining. ScarJo’s talent has led her to roles varying from Janet Leigh in Hitchcock to Kay Lake in The Black Dahlia to Black Widow in Marvel’s The Avengers. But none of these roles have shared too much limelight with ScarJo’s singing voice, the very singing voice that got her nominated for an Oscar this past year. She also paired up with singer/songwriter Pete Yorn in 2009 to record an album. We’ve featured a live performance of one of their tracks below.
Rounding out our list of singing Avengers (Avengers 2: The Musical, anyone?) is Oscar-winner Jeremy Renner – bow-and-arrow-wielding superhero, Hawkeye, in the film. During a guest appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Jeremy shocked the nation and Jimmy, himself, by belting out Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind”. And somehow the hosts of ABC’s The View managed to convince Jeremy to perform one of his original songs on their show, and it left us hoping that he’d release a whole album of originals! You can see him sing “a little… verse and a chorus, or something” below!
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5. Bruce Willis
Action star Bruce Willis has had some notable movie roles over the course of his lengthy film career – John McClane in the never-ending Die Hard series, Dr. Malcolm Crowe in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense, and Butch Coolidge in Pulp Fiction, to name a few. But as any Bruce Willis biography or trivia page notes, he’s also a musician. That’s right. Hard-edged tough-guy Bruce Willis has lent his voice to multiple compilation albums and has created several solo records of his own. We know; we were surprised, too.
Funnyman John C. Reilly is known for playing good-hearted but goofy characters, his most recent of which was the title character in Disney Pixar’s animated 2012 Oscar-nominee, Wreck It Ralph. This role, however, was just a voiceover – you might recognize John’s face from such comedies as Step-Brothers and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. But before any of these movies, John was in a little movie called Chicago. And that little movie was a musical… and it won an Oscar for Best Picture in 2004. Did we mention that John’s was a singing role? After Chicago, John contributed to a celebrity album called “Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars,” and you can hear the song he sang below.
7. Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet is most famous for her steamy romance with Leondardo DiCaprio in Titanic. But we wish she was more famous for her pretty voice! Kate always sounds just right for the parts she sings, like this Italian operatic melody from Australian flick Heavenly Creatures, this pretty piece from 1995’s Sense & Sensibility, and this eerily beautiful song from Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet. She might not fit in with the Top 40 hits, but we think Kate’s singing sounds lovely. Our favorite is the song she contributed to the soundtrack of a 2001 animated Christmas Carol: The Movie called “What If,” shown below.
Jensen Ackles plays Dean Winchester on the CW’s Supernatural. This role doesn’t require much singing, but we were much more impressed with his off-screen singing (his is the second voice – the one that sounds more “country”). We were totally blown away by “Angeles” which he sings with LA-based singer/songwriter Steve Carlson; it’s below, in case you want to hear it, too.
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Jennifer Love Hewitt – known for I Know What You Did Last Summer and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, as well as playing the lead characters in The Ghost Whisperer and new Lifetime series The Client List – has apparently been singing for years. Little did we know. But when we stumbled upon some of her old hits from 2002, we were hit with a wave of sentimental nostalgia. JLH rocks that Alanis Morissette/Michelle Branch sound that we all miss. Our favorite was “BareNaked,” a fun jam off her 2002 album of the same title. Give it a listen below!
10. Zachary Levi
Zac Levi played loveable, computer nerd-turned-spy Chuck Bartowski for six seasons on NBC’s Chuck. Boy, do we miss Chuck. But Zac’s been making plenty of contributions to Hollywood anyway – one of which you might not have even realized was him! Zac Levi provided the vocals, both speaking and singing, for Flynn Rider in Disney’s Tangled, and he sang the movie’s main love theme with Mandy Moore. But Mandy’s not the only lucky lady Zac’s made music with! Also in 2010, Zac recorded a song (below) with singer/songwriter Katharine McPhee that appeared on her “Unbroken” album. It’s a great love song that will give you enough Zac Levi to last until you can see him as Fandral the Dashing in Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World come November.
BONUS: Marilyn Monroe
We’ve included Marilyn as a bonus here because we just love her voice! One of the most prominent celebrity idols of the 20th century, we think she definitely deserves a spot on this list, and even though she technically hasn’t sung in more than fifty years, we still celebrate her vocal talents. (And this priceless scene below from Some Like It Hot!)
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