Zayn Malik

Zain Javadd Malik (born 12 January 1993), known professionally as Zayn Malik or simply Zayn, is a British singer.

Zayn Malik was born Zain Javadd Malik on 12 January 1993 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, to an immigrant Pakistani Muslim father, Yaser Malik, and a White British mother of English and Irish descent, Trisha Malik (née Brannan), who converted to Islam upon marriage.

Malik has one older sister, Doniya, and two younger sisters, Waliyha and Safaa.

Despite having an Islamic upbringing, he no longer identifies as a Muslim.

Malik grew up in East Bowling, Bradford, in a working-class family and neighbourhood.

He attended Lower Fields Primary School and Tong High School (now Tong Leadership Academy) in Bradford.

As a teenager, he took performing arts courses and appeared in school productions.

He grew up listening to his father's urban music records, primarily R&B, hip hop, and reggae.

He wrote raps when he was at school and sang on stage for the first time when singer Jay Sean visited his school.

Malik also boxed for two years, from ages 15 to 17.

Before beginning his music career, he intended to pursue an academic degree in English in hopes of becoming an English teacher.

Malik auditioned as a solo contestant for the British music competition television series The X Factor in 2010.

After being eliminated, he was brought back to the competition to form the five-piece boy band One Direction, which went on to become one of the best-selling boy bands of all time.

In 2010, 17-year-old Malik auditioned in Manchester for the seventh series of reality television competition The X Factor.

On the morning of the audition, Malik became nervous and did not want to attend, but his mother eventually forced him out of bed and coaxed him into going.

He sang "Let Me Love You" by Mario as his audition song and was accepted into the next round.

Upon auditioning for The X Factor, Malik stated that he was "looking for an experience".

Despite being eliminated before the final round of the competition, 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.

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 recording contract.

They signed in North America with Columbia Records.

A book licensed by One Direction, One Direction: Forever Young (Our Official X Factor Story), released in February 2011 and topped The Sunday Times' Best Seller list.

The same month, the boy band performed for 500,000 people throughout the UK as part of the X Factor Live Tour.

The group's debut studio album Up All Night was released in November 2011 in the UK and Ireland.

Released internationally in March 2012, they became the first UK group to have their debut album reach number one in the United States.

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.

Following the release of the album, the band embarked on the Up All Night Tour.

Initially intended to be solely a UK tour, dates in North America and Australia were added due to demand.

Up All Night: The Live Tour, a video album documenting the tour, was released in May 2012.

That same month, One Direction's first book to be licensed in America, Dare to Dream: Life as One Direction, was published and topped The New York Times Best Seller list.

In September 2012, One Direction released "Live While We're Young", the lead single from their second album, and it reached the top ten in almost every country it charted in and recorded the highest one-week opening sales figure for a song by a non-US artist in the US at the time.

The album's second single, "Little Things", spawned the band's second number-one single in the UK.

One Direction's second studio album, Take Me Home, was released in November 2012.

He is the only artist to have won the Billboard Music Award for New Artist of the Year twice, receiving it once as a member of One Direction in 2013 and again in 2017 as a soloist.

He left the group in March 2015 and signed a solo recording contract with RCA Records.

Adopting a more alternative R&B music style on his first solo studio album, Mind of Mine (2016), and its lead single, "Pillowtalk", he became the first British male artist to debut at number one in both the UK and US with his debut single and album.

His subsequent collaborative singles "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" with Taylor Swift and "Dusk Till Dawn" featuring Sia were met with international success.

He released his second studio album, Icarus Falls, in 2018, followed by his third album, Nobody Is Listening, in 2021.

Malik has received several accolades, including an American Music Award and a MTV Video Music Award.