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Zain Javadd "Zayn" Malik (born January 12th 1993) is a British singer-songwriter who rose to prominence in 2010 as a member of boyband One Direction. In 2010, Malik auditioned as a solo artist for the British television series The X Factor. After being eliminated as a solo artist, Malik was given the opportunity to continue in the show as part of a new boyband with four fellow eliminated contestants, later known as One Direction. Despite coming third in the show, Malik found success with One Direction with four commercially successful albums, four world tours and received a number of awards. In March 2015, Malik announced his departure from the group and later signed a record deal with RCA Records as a solo artist.

His debut solo record Justified was released in November 2015, on the same day as his former group, and reached #1 in 8 countries and the top ten of many more. His first two singles, "Like I Love You" and "Cry Me A River" both hit #1 in the UK whilst peaking at #1 and #2 respectively in the US.

Early Life
Zain Javadd Malik was born on 12 January 1993 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. His father, Yaser Malik, is British Pakistani, and his mother, Tricia Brannan Malik, is English, and converted to Islam upon marriage. He has one older sister, Doniya, and two younger sisters, Waliyha and Safaa. 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. As a teenager he took performing arts courses and appeared in school productions. Malik did not fit in at his first two 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.

Signing to RCA & Justified (2015-Present)
On July 25th 2015, it was announced that Malik had signed a record contract with RCA Records. It had previously been announced that any material released by him after his departure would be through Simon Cowell's Syco Records with the British media offering different reasons why he had left the label. Some claimed that Cowell had dropped Malik due to his loyalty to One Direction with others stating Malik had chosen to leave.

A month later on August 28th, Malik announced that his debut solo album "Justified" would be released on November 13th. On the same day "Like I Love You", a collaboration with hip hop due Clipse, as his debut single. The song, co-written by Malik, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, debuted at #1 in the UK and the US. The song broke several records made by One Direction's "Drag Me Down", the group's first single without him. Their song had reached 20 million streams in its first week in the US and 2.03m in the UK with Malik reaching 21 million and 3.2 million in the US and UK respectively. The song hit #1 in 20 countries worldwide.

"Cry Me A River" was released as his second single on October 23rd and debuted at #2 in the UK behind Adele's "Hello". After three weeks in second position, the song rose to #1 on November 20th becoming his second UK #1 single whilst "Rock Your Body", debuted at #3 through streams and individual sales (or cherrypicking) from digital sites. With "Cry Me A River", "Rock Your Body" and "Like I Love You" at #1, #3 and #5 respectively, Malik became the first male artist in 34 years to hold three positions in the UK top five. A week later, "Cry Me A River" remained at #1 whilst "Rock Your Body" and "Like I Love You" climbed a place to #2 and #4 respectively. Over in the US, the song debuted at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Rock Your Body" debuting at #4 on the December 5th chart.

On November 13th 2015, Malik released his debut album. The album was locked in a chart battle with his former group One Direction who announced in September that their fifth album, and first without Malik, would be released on the same day. In the UK, One Direction won the battle with Malik coming in at #2 whilst the result was reversed in the US, Australia and New Zealand. In the US, Malik blocked One Direction from gaining their fifth consecutive US #1 album.