Before Vanessa Hudgens became the star of Disney's High School Musical franchise, the now 18-year-old apparently had her sights set on American Idol.
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"I love singing and I thought that to get a chance to do [American Idol] would have been amazing," Hudgens told Australia's Daily Telegraph in a Wednesday report. "The only way I thought that I would be able to get myself out there would be on American Idol. But I was 15 at the time when I said that I wanted to do it and you had to be 16 to audition."
The upper end of the Idol's age requirement went from 26 to 28 prior to fourth-season auditions and producers have considered raising it to 30, but the minimum age requirement to audition for the Fox mega-hit has always been 16.
"So I thought, 'One more year,'" Hudgens told the Telegraph.
However once the starlet's 16th birthday finally arrived, High School Musical was already in the cards.
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"When I turned 16, High School Musical came along and I got to do it," she told the Telegraph. "So I thought I'd skip on American Idol."
While High School Musical has helped Hudgens' status as an actress, the gig has also helped establish a potential music career.
The High School Musical 2 soundtrack -- which currently sits at No. 6 on The Billboard 200 album sales chart -- recently became top selling album of 2007. It surpassed "Daughtry," the debut album of the band fronted by former Idol 5 finalist Chris Daughtry.
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio