Zain Javadd "Zayn" Malik (/ˈmælɪk/; born 12 January 1993), who records mononymously as Zayn (also stylised as ZAYN), is an English singer and songwriter. In 2010, Malik auditioned as a solo artist for the British reality television music competition The X Factor. After being eliminated as a solo performer, Malik was brought back into the competition, along with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson, to form the boy band One Direction. During his time in the group, Malik and his bandmates released the albums Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013), and Four (2014). In March 2015, Malik's representative announced the singer's departure from the band. Malik signed a solo recording contract with RCA Records in 2015, with his debut studio album Mind of Mine released on 25 March 2016. The album and its lead single, "Pillowtalk", reached number one in a number of countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, with Malik becoming the first British male artist to debut at number one in both the UK and US with his debut single and debut album. Zain Javadd Malik[1][2] was born on 12 January 1993[3] in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.[4][5] His father, Yaser Malik, is British Pakistani, and his mother, Tricia Brannan Malik, is English and part Irish, and converted to Islam upon marriage.[4][6][7] He has one older sister, Doniya, and two younger sisters, Waliyha and Safaa.[8][9] He was raised in a working cla** family,[4] and grew up in a working-cla** neighbourhood.[10] Malik grew up in East Bowling, located south of the Bradford city centre. He attended Lower Fields Primary School and Tong High School in Bradford.[11] Malik has said that he did not fit in at his first two primary schools due to his mixed heritage of Pakistani and English. Malik has stated that he started taking pride in his appearance after moving schools at the age of twelve, and as a teenager he took performing arts courses and appeared in school productions.[12] He grew up listening to his father's urban music records, primarily R&B, hip hop, and reggae, as well as Bollywood music.[10] He starting writing raps when he was at school,[13] and sang on stage for the first time when singer Jay Sean visited his school.[14] Malik also did boxing when he was 15 to 17 years old.[15] Prior to his music career, he was originally planning to pursue an English degree at university. In 2010, 17-year-old Malik auditioned in Manchester for the seventh series of reality-television competition The X Factor. He sang "Let Me Love You" by Mario as his audition song and was accepted into the next round.[17] Upon auditioning for The X Factor, Malik stated that he was "looking for an experience".[18] He was eliminated before the final round of the competition,[19] but judges Nicole Scherzinger and Simon Cowell grouped him with fellow competitors Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson to form a new act for the remainder of the show, the boy band that would become known as One Direction.[20] The group quickly gained popularity in the UK, finished in third place, and were subsequently signed by Cowell to a reported £2 million Syco Records record contract.[21] They subsequently signed in North America with Columbia Records.[22] A book licensed by One Direction, One Direction: Forever Young (Our Official X Factor Story), released in February 2011, topped The Sunday Times' Best Seller list.[23][24] The same month, the boy band performed for 500,000 people throughout the UK as part of the X Factor Live Tour.[25] The group's debut studio album Up All Night was released in November 2011. It topped the charts in 16 countries. The lead single, "What Makes You Beautiful", was an international commercial success, reaching number one in the UK and number four in the US; it has since been certified four and six times platinum in the US and Australia, respectively. Subsequent singles, "Gotta Be You" and "One Thing", became top ten hits in the UK. The band's second studio album, Take Me Home, was released in November 2012.[26] The record sold 540,000 copies in its first week in the US and went to number one in 35 countries.[27][28] The album's lead single, "Live While We're Young", became One Direction's highest peaking song in a number of countries and recorded the highest one-week opening sales figure for a song by a non-US artist at the time.[29] Wikinews has related news: Zayn Malik leaves One Direction after five years One Direction's third studio album, 2013's Midnight Memories, was a commercial success as well. Its number one debut on Billboard 200 made One Direction the first band in history to have their first three albums all debut atop the Billboard 200. With their fourth album, 2014's Four, they extended the record to four consecutive number-one albums. As of March 2015, the band has sold 6.49 million albums and 23.7 million singles in the United States.[30] The group has sold more than 50 million records globally.[31] Malik quit the band on 25 March 2015, citing his desire to live as a "normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight", after signing off from the band's On the Road Again Tour for an indefinite period six days prior due to stress. He denied rumors of any rift between the members, explaining that the band had been supportive of the decision.[32][33][34] His last public performance in the name of One Direction was On the Road Again Tour in Hong Kong on 18 March 2015 in AsiaWorld Arena. In March 2015, Malik was seen at a London recording studio with producer Naughty Boy, leading to speculation of the pair working on music together.[35] Following his departure from One Direction, Malik alluded to the potential of a solo career, with the release of his first solo studio album to be released under the Syco label in 2016.[36][37] On 31 March 2015, Naughty Boy released on SoundCloud an early demo of Malik's song "I Won't Mind".[38] In June 2015, UK rapper Mic Righteous leaked Malik's "No Type", featuring Mic Righteous and produced by Naughty Boy, a cover version of Rae Sremmurd's hip hop song.[39] With Naughty Boy as his producer, Malik also worked with grime rappers Krept & Konan during this time, recording a song together with an unfinished music video, but the material was never released after Malik parted ways with Naughty Boy.[40] Though unreleased, his work with Naughty Boy and Krept & Konan helped Malik gain a new urban audience in the UK.[41] On 29 July 2015, Malik announced he had signed a recording deal with RCA Records.[42] Later that year, Malik gave several interviews where he talked about his debut solo studio album and revealed part of the track list. Talking with The Fader, he stated "life experiences have been the influences for the album and just stuff that I've been through, especially in the last five years". He said musically the record leans towards R&B, with some tracks influenced by R&B-rock and reggae.[10] In a conversation with Billboard, Malik's main collaborator for the album James “Malay” Ho said they have gone to unusual lengths in pursuit of inspiration during recording sessions, for one “we went camping for a week in the Angeles Forest - set up a generator and a tent so we could track in the woods."[43] In his first solo on-camera interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music's Beats 1, Malik revealed Mind of Mine as the album's title.[44] The album includes 18 songs written by Malik, whittled down from 46 tracks he wrote;[45] one of the songs on the album features American R&B singer-songwriter Kehlani.[46] The album's lead single "Pillowtalk" was released along with its accompanying music video on 29 January 2016,[47] described by music critics as a downtempo electronic[48] R&B slow jam,[49] leaning towards PBR&B,[50][51] or alternative R&B.[52][53] The song debuted at number one in a number of countries, including the UK Singles Chart[54] and the US Billboard Hot 100;[55] on the latter, it became the 25th song to debut at number one, making him the first UK artist to debut at number one on the Hot 100 with a first charted single.[55] The single's performance propelled Zayn to number six on the Billboard Artist 100 chart.[56] Worldwide, he had the highest first-day and weekly streams for a debut artist.[57] The album's second official single "Like I Would" was released on 10 March 2016, and is an electro-R&B dance track.[58][59] The album Mind of Mine was made available for pre-order on 25 February 2016, along with the digital release of the promotional single "iT's YoU" and its music video, the latter as an Apple Music exclusive.[60][61] The second promotional single, "Befour", was released on 17 March 2016,[62] and has been described as smooth R&B.[63] The music video for "Befour" was released on 25 March 2016,[64] and was shot in Manchester's Miles Platting district, dramatising what Malik's working cla** teenage life was like in Northern England.[65] On 25 February 2016, "Pillowtalk (Lil Wayne Remix)" was released, featuring American rapper Lil Wayne; it is a hip hop remix that features rapping by Lil Wayne along with rapping and rap-singing by Zayn.[66][67] The following day saw the release of Chris Brown's R&B song "Back to Sleep (Remix)" featuring Usher and Zayn.[68] Malik's vocal performance in the remix received a positive critical reception.[69] The album Mind of Mine was released on 25 March 2016.[70] Primarily R&B and alternative R&B, the album blends elements from a number of genres, including pop, folk, soul (including British soul[69] and neo-soul), dub,[71] funk,[72] electronic,[48] reggae,[73] Qawwali, ghazal,[59][74] hip hop,[75][76] cla**ical,[77] and soft rock.[78] The album also channels different eras of music, including modern, retro,[79] 1980s,[69] and 1990s,[80] while the moods of the album vary from slow ballads to thumping club jams.[81] Despite the variations in the sounds and genres, Mind of Mine is structured in an "album-as-complete-work" form, maintaining a tightly knit cohesion throughout the record, with an almost seamless transition between and across songs,[41][75][81] while maintaining a recognizable, mostly downbeat, "hazy" tone throughout.[79][82][83][84] This gives the album a continuous flow,[79] and gives the impression that it all came from one person's "mind."[81] The album has received favourable reviews from music critics, with praise directed towards Malik's new musical direction, his vocals, and the album's music production.[85][86][87] Mind of Mine debuted at number one in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and United States, where he became the first British male solo artist to debut at number one with his first album. Zayn is also one of the few artists to have achieved number one on the US Billboard 200 both as part of a group and as a solo act, along with Justin Timberlake (NSYNC), Gwen Stefani (No Doubt) and Beyoncé (Destiny's Child).[88] Zayn is also the first UK male artist to debut at number one in both the UK and US,[89] and the third artist to debut at number one on both the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 with debut entries on each chart (along with Lauryn Hill and Clay Aiken).[90] Zayn also topped the Billboard Artist 100 chart, replacing Justin Bieber at the summit,[91] and surpa**ing One Direction's number-two peak on the chart.[92] On 24 March 2016, Malik made his second solo appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. On 25 March 2016, he performed on the Honda Stage at the iHeartRadio Theater in New York City.[93][94] Zayn performed at the 3rd iHeartRadio Music Awards on 3 April 2016