Zayn Malik put a new music sample on Twitter, accompanied by a silly cartoon. The 30-second snippet hardly gives a picture of what to expect of a song of any sort, but it gives a sense of what direction Zayn is moving in. The snippet seems highly inspired by music of Indian or Pakistani origin.
Malik may be looking to give fans a more organic experience of music based on that part of his heritage. Zayn hasn’t really had a chance to explore that side of himself in his music, not in his solo album, and definitely not in One Direction, even though that is the very aspect that made him unique in the group, besides his talent.
— zayn (@zaynmalik) March 7, 2017
Zayn released “Mind of Mine” back in March of last year. As incredibly well as that album has done, fans are getting restless for his next full length production.
Malik’s producer Malay told Billboard about his plans for an upcoming song with more cultural flavor.
“I thought it would be fun to have a platform that was maybe a little less pressure for the artist and then me having the challenge and the fun of creating a new sound. The other part of what I’m doing is representing a little bit more of the culture subliminally with Zayn Malik, who I’ve been working with. We’re talking about doing a song with him and A. R. Rahman together and I’m having Zayn [sing] in Urdu, it’s real similar to Hindi but it’s [a] Pakistani language. It’s a modern-sounding song, but for him to sing in that language is kind of powerful.”
A. R. Rahman is a highly successful Indian composer with a talent for blending Indian sounds with more modern styles. While it’s not clear whether Zayn Malik’s entire next album will be influenced by cultural sounds, there should be at least a song or two that go in that direction.
In a somewhat embarrassing turn of events, at the 2017 iHeartRadio Awards last Sunday, Zayn had already begun thanking fans for winning an award for Best Music Video. The award, chosen by fans, actually belonged to Fifth Harmony. Zayn was instead given an award for Best Solo Breakout artist. He was also nominated for Best New Pop Artist, losing out to The Chainsmokers.
The reaction after the song snippet was released on Twitter has been furious. It hasn’t even been a full day but the song sample has already received over 21,000 retweets, 51,000 likes, and 3,000 comments. The only thing left for Zayn Malik to do is release the full song. Listening Zayn?
