Zayn Malik the former One Direction band member who left in March of 2015 to pursue a career as a solo artist. He received a lot of hate and a lot of love for his decision to leave, but at the end of the day it was his decision, based on his own happiness and how he wanted to live his life as a solo artist.
After leaving One Direction he immediately changed his name to just ‘Zayn’, because this is what he felt was personal to him but also because he wanted a ‘new identity’ before he began to produce his music.
Once he became a solo artist, he released his first single Pillowtalk, which has received 953 million views as of now. Due to the song being very popular, he became the first British male artist to debut at number one in the US and UK with his debut single and debut album. He later came out with the album ‘Mind of Mine’ which consisted of songs influenced by Bollywood with a mix of R&B music style. His music taste is hugely influenced by his background, as he is of English and Pakistani descent, but even his choice of music today remains the same and contains similar elements of Bollywood and R&B.
Zayn’s most hit song is ‘Dusk till Dawn’ which has over 1.2 Billion views on YouTube alone, which featured Sia.
After leaving One Direction he has been able to fulfill his dreams and won the American Music Award , Billboard Music Award, iHeartRadio Music Award and the MTV Video Music Award for his talent and creativity in his music videos.
He was only able to accomplish these awards after leaving 1D because he could not input his style of music in 1D, and because of this it had a negative effect on his health and eating habits. Food was the only aspect of his life he could control and therefore he felt that starving himself was his only escape, and would eat nothing for up to 3 days at a time. When he left, he was able to focus on himself and improve his well-being which had made him more stronger and successful as an artist than before.
By Tarnpreet Jagdeo
