Zayn Malik was never considered the face of One Direction. However, after leaving the group , while the remaining members struggled with the mess, Zayn rose to the top , becoming a bright solo artist.

The lead single from his debut album, Pillowtalk , went straight to No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 – a position that One Direction themselves had never achieved.

Different pieces​

Zayn Malik’s real name is Zain Javadd Malik, whose father is a Pakistani immigrant, and he grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Bradford, Northern England.

His name means “beautiful king” in Arabic. As a child, Zayn loved his dad’s R&B and rap music, and would sing at school assemblies. However, he didn’t really consider music as a career until he appeared on the reality TV show.

Zayn and then-girlfriend Gigi Hadid in the music video for “Pillowtalk”

In 2010, 17-year-old Zayn went to Manchester and auditioned for the UK version of The X Factor . He later claimed he only did it to please his mother. He sang Mario’s 2005 hit Let Me Love You . He looked boyish, cute, and not at all like a star. It’s rare to witness the exact moment a cultural phenomenon is born!

Zayn didn’t do well on The X Factor , at least as a solo artist. He was eliminated early on but was lucky enough to be placed in a group with other cute guys who were also eliminated by Simon Cowell and the other judges.

All the footage is online – the judges look at photos of the boys, gushing over how cute they look together, leading them on stage and telling them they’re now a group. Zayn – as well as the other four – looks thrilled.

They were strangers, with different backgrounds and personalities. But at the time, that didn’t matter. The idea of ​​One Direction was just plain fun. 

One Direction did not win The X Factor . They only came third. However, Simon Cowell saw great potential in them and turned One Direction into one of the most successful boy bands of the 21st century.

However, the success came too quickly and the differences from the beginning gradually caused One Direction to crack. Zayn did not fit the innocent humor that One Direction often showed to the world. He said he suffered from an eating disorder and anxiety when working with the group.

One Direction’s breakup was a foregone conclusion, and perhaps that’s why they’ve been so prolific. Four years after the boys met on The X Factor , they’ve released four albums and toured relentlessly. However, Four, released in late 2014, didn’t sell as well as their previous albums, only going platinum in the US and not producing any top 10 singles.

A few months after Four was released, Zayn withdrew from One Direction’s Asian tour, saying he needed a break to recover his mental health. A week later, he announced his departure from One Direction. Fans were devastated, and One Direction released only one more album before officially breaking up.

Grow up quickly

Four months after leaving One Direction, Zayn signed a solo deal with RCA. He moved to Los Angeles and recorded much of his debut solo album Mind Of Mine with James Ho – best known as Frank Ocean’s main collaborator on the hugely successful Channel Orange album.

Zayn clearly wanted to be a cool, young R&B singer, and no one was cooler than Frank Ocean at the time. In 2015, the world was flooded with fresh R&B singers who were capable of making big strides, and Zayn was expected to be one of the leaders.

In November 2015, Zayn also had a noisy interview, making people more curious about his first solo product. He shared that he never felt like he fit in with One Direction.

“I never had the chance to experiment creatively in the group. If I did an intro or a rap that was R&B-influenced, or my own thing, it would always have to be re-recorded 50 times until it was pure pop, with no identity, so they could release it,” Zayn said. “Whatever I suggested didn’t seem right for the group.”

Zayn (second from left) in his early days with One Direction

As a solo artist, of course, Zayn doesn’t have to fit into the mold anymore. Audiences are eager to see the real him.

Admittedly, Zayn’s smooth, melodious tenor voice is not suitable for One Direction’s energetic, powerful songs. Instead, he is very suitable for the sad, indie-influenced R&B genre, which was a hot music genre in the world in the mid-2010s.

Though never the most prominent member of One Direction, Zayn is on track to reach Justin Timberlake levels after leaving Nsync: from a young singer who made teenage girls swoon to a mature pop star with a charm that most teen idols couldn’t match.

It certainly seemed like it when Zayn released his first solo release: Pillowtalk – the lead single from the Mind of Mine album.

Pillowtalk is a solid R&B song, even though it wasn’t recorded with James Ho. Instead, it came from his writing sessions with Michael and Anthony Hannides, two British brothers who have worked with R&B heavyweights like McLean and Jay Sean.

Critics have been raving about Pillowtalk . Even though Zayn is new to R&B, he seems to have mastered the genre. His maturity is evident in his sultry lyrics about love – which are written as both “heaven” and “battlefield” – all of which are sure to please older fans.

Zayn released Pillowtalk under his own name in all caps, showing a lot of confidence. And he nailed it! Fans likened Pillowtalk to the sexy R&B sound of The Weeknd and early solo work of Justin Timberlake. It was a far cry from One Direction’s previous pop sound.

Pillowtalk was released on January 29, 2016, immediately debuting at No.1 on both the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100, making Zayn the first British artist to top the US charts with his debut single.

Pillowtalk ‘s success was also clearly helped by the accompanying music video. Without any need for a highlight or plot, the hot appearance of Zayn’s then-girlfriend, supermodel Gigi Hadid, was enough to captivate the world. The music video currently has over 1.2 billion views on YouTube.

The parent album Mind of Mine , released later, also debuted at No.1 in both the UK and the US.

It can be said that Pillowtalk has done its job excellently. Unfortunately, after that, Zayn could not maintain his form. He did not become the new Frank Ocean or Justin Timberlake…