Zayn Malik recalls the racism he experienced at height of One Direction fame
In a preview of his upcoming song, Fuchsia Sea, Zayn Malik has addressed the racism he experienced during his time in One Direction. The 32-year-old British singer gave fans a first listen to the new track on Saturday along with a short video.
Zayn shot to fame as a member of One Direction, performing alongside Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, and the late Liam Payne. They skyrocketed into fame after appearing on X-Factor in 2010 before he parted ways in 2015.
In the new song, Zayn raps: 'Got my back against the wall so much they think I got a brick fascination. Do you remember every conversation? 'Cause I have been conscious of every connotation. And while they concentrate on their elevation, I've got a round trip to the constellation. I'm a convert to the concert, and I did that for inflation, 'cause I worked hard in a White band, and they still laughed at the Asian.'
The singer shared a snippet of the song on Instagram, along with a video where he has his back to the camera as he is walking down a corridor. He also typed the lyrics in an Instagram story.
The father-of-one, who shares four-year-old daughter Khai with ex-girlfriend Gigi Hadid, has also addressed racism in music in the past. In a leaked song called Yellow Metal (Cathartic), Zayn wrote the lyrics: 'Said I had a problem with hittin' the kids that would call me paki, still sittin' in classroom chillin', I'm angry now that I'm older 'cause I see they treat us different, Got me thinking I'm the problem 'cause they never dealt with these issues'.
The singer also wrote: 'Twenty years later, I'm still in the same boat, tryna treat me like my grandpa, say I came up off the boat.'
5 years after One Direction was formed via The X Factor in 2010, Zayn decided to go his separate ways and said he wanted to be a 'normal' 22-year-old' and take some time away from the spotlight.
He announced the news via the group's Facebook page and wrote: 'I feel like it is now the right time for me to leave the band,' he said in a statement.
Zayn added: 'I'd like to apologize to the fans if I've let anyone down, but I have to do what feels right in my heart. I am leaving because I want to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight. I know I have four friends for life in Louis, Liam, Harry and Niall.'
Elsewhere in Zayn's life, he previously opened up about his daughter Khai and said that she 'brought him back to life'.
Speaking on the Zach Sang Show, he said: 'I feel like my daughter brought that colour back in my life. She just makes me happy. I have so much love in me that I didn't have before she was born.
"She laughs all day. She wants to do the silliest things and she gains so much excitement from it. She just has a whole fresh perspective on life that had somewhat become grey for me."
Zayn continued: "She's a force of nature. She's given me maturity. She's forced my sensibility to become this mature father for her, this good responsible role model that takes accountability for their actions and sticks to their work and proves that my word is bond."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Reason latest twist in Beckhams' feud could be devastating for little Harper
Harper Beckham has reportedly idolised her oldest brother Brooklyn since she was a young child, but friction has developed within the family since Brooklyn's no-show at Sir David's birthday bash Harper Beckham will be "devastated" today if her oldest brother Brooklyn fails to wish her a happy birthday, it is said. Sir David and Lady Beckham's youngest child - and only daughter - is understood to have idolised Brooklyn since she was a young child. Although she doesn't have Instagram yet, it is believed the "family thing" is to tag Harper in a photograph on posts as #harperseven to acknowledge her big day as she turns 14. But Brooklyn and his wife Nicola Peltz were no-shows at Sir David's 50th birthday celebrations earlier this year, which has led to a public feud within the family. Fearful of a repeat of this episode, a source said: "Brooklyn and Harper used to be inseparable. He adored her, he hopefully still does, but the problem is that Brooklyn has a track record for ignoring family birthdays now. "It would be devastating for Harper not to hear from him. She hasn't done anything and she's only 13 years old, she is the innocent party here." Brooklyn Beckham 'so happy' as he shares major update on in-laws amid family rift The concern has emerged after Nicola, 30, made a number of eyebrow-raising remarks about family life as her own father's birthday celebrations enter a third week. Showing her followers her Pop Mart dolls lined up in a row, she wrote: "our little family", with a telling second snap, which she captioned: "My mom just gets it." She later posted a snap of herself hugging her father, writing: "I love you so much dad." This has led to the insider's comments Harper will be disappointed if she doesn't hear from Brooklyn, either privately or publicly today. They told Mail Online:"Harper's birthday has always been such a happy day, she's the adored little daughter so it's always so joyous but this is a tough situation. Brooklyn was 12 when Harper was born, he was so important in her life and it must be terribly sad that she isn't seeing him since the fall out with David and Victoria happened." At the start of her relationship with Brooklyn, Nicola seemed to forge a strong bond with Harper. The actress soon positioned herself as a "big sister" figure to the little girl, who is said to have "adored" her. Harper has reportedly also always been close to Brooklyn, who is 12 years older than her. But it is believed now the couple, who married in April 2022 at her family's £76million Florida mansion, no longer speak to Sir David and Lady Beckham. Our source said this week Brooklyn's younger siblings, particularly Harper, have sadly become collateral damage of the feud. "Harper's been particularly affected by what's going on because she's always been really close to Brooklyn," claimed the source. "They've always had a lovely bond because Brooklyn was that bit older when Harper was born, and the hope when Brooklyn married Nicola was that she'd become like a big sister to Harper in a house full of brothers."
Spectator
3 hours ago
- Spectator
I've got Donald Trump to thank for my unusual middle name
Never make a drunken bet. At about 3 a.m. one fateful morning, pre-pandemic and several bottles down, a friend and I made a wager on the outcome of the 2020 US election – he for Joe Biden, I for Donald Trump (who, at the time, looked like a sure thing). Then came lockdown, spiralling inflation and unemployment – and the rest is history. This wasn't a bet for money. Instead, it was stipulated that whoever lost would legally assume a new middle name. Being gamers of a certain vintage, we drew from the Nintendo canon. If my friend had lost, he'd have become James Edward Bowser Price. Should I lose, I would take on the middle name Waluigi. For the uninitiated, Waluigi is a decidedly second- or even third-tier baddie from Mario Kart, who wears dark blue dungarees and a purple hat. Having lost, I duly filled out the requisite paperwork and my friend came over to witness the deed poll being signed. Like Gandalf the White, I was reborn. No longer Madeline Mary Grant, but Madeline Mary Waluigi Grant. Being a woman of my word, there is no changing it back. Soon a passport renewal beckons and when I get married this weekend the vicar insists that, legally, the full name must be read out in church, which may prove a shock for my extended family, who don't yet know about this change of identity. As embarrassing as this may be, I do rather enjoy an unexpected or jarring middle name. Politics affords plenty: Keir Rodney Starmer, Mark Gino Francois, Richard Milhous Nixon. Some middle names are eerily prophetic. Unity Mitford had Valkyrie as hers. Coupled with the fact that she was conceived in Swastika, Ontario, nominative determinism begins to look undeniable. In terms of the politics of ordinary relationships, there is a perfect role for middle names as a sort of compromise zone. It is to the middle name you can demote a much-loved great-grandparent, schoolteacher or cat, still honouring them but without making your child walk around with a ridiculous name. It's not only an act of compromise with school bullies of the future, it's also an act of compromise with whoever has provided the other requisite slice of the chromosomes. You will have fond memories of Great Uncle Zerubbabel, but your significant other might not. A middle name is therefore the perfect compromise, preserving filial dignity and marital harmony. Should we have a son, my fiancé is agitating to inflict a variety of names on him. The current frontrunners are Banastre, Sacheverell or Chrysostom (after the most violent British commander of the US War of Independence, the clerical controversialist of the reign of Queen Anne and the great preacher of 4th-century Byzantium, respectively). I'm hoping for 'Edmund'. Happily, this is where middle names really show their utility. The real experts in this department were the Puritans, whose extreme derangement didn't stop at regicide. The already 'creatively' named Praise-God Barebone had a son whom he called Nicholas 'If-Jesus-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned-unless-Jesus-Christ-had-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned' Barebone. Must have been a nightmare for the school uniform nametapes.
Spectator
4 hours ago
- Spectator
How to holiday White Lotus-style: Billionaire Playground reviewed
Today's television is notably fond of presenting us with very rich people to both despise and wish we lived like. As well as high-end dramas like Succession and The White Lotus (a programme that's caused a huge rise in bookings for the resorts where its characters' dreadfulness is filmed), there are any number of documentaries in which the bling's the thing. Netflix, for example, has a genre called 'Lavish Reality Lifestyles' that consists of 38 different shows. In a mildly cunning twist, Billion Dollar Playground makes some of the staff who wait on the wealthy a kind of audience surrogate: mixing enthusiastic wonder at all that money can bring with beady-eyed disdain for the sense of entitlement displayed by those it brings it to. The staff in question work for an Australian company that specialises in providing large houses and servants for people wanting a break from their everyday lives of large houses and servants. In this week's two episodes, the setting was an undeniably luxurious villa in Sydney, where the fawning over the guests began before the guests arrived. First, head concierge Salvatore oversaw the preparation of the house, taking a particularly stern line on slightly misaligned dining chairs. The staff then took advance delivery of the luggage, which the guests, naturally, had neither packed nor were going to unpack themselves. In their defence, mind you, there was a lot of it. The seven women who'd hired the villa (aka 'the ladies') each had ten dresses and 12 pairs of shoes for their two-day stay. Meanwhile, another thing being got ready was the suspiciously neat soap-opera subplot: an inter-concierge power struggle between Salvatore and his two assistants – the sassy Heaven, who didn't like it when her boss was bossy, and goody-goody Jasmin whose distaste for Heaven's 'lack of respect' led to much mutual glaring. Eventually the ladies showed up and soon got down to what was required of them, objecting to caviar being served with salmon and complaining that a towel was 'too smooth'. Now all we needed was a spot of jeopardy, which the programme did its breathless best to inject. Would Heaven get the ladies on time to Sydney's Luna theme park which had been laid aside for their exclusive use as a dessert venue? Would she be able to meet their sudden demand for a fire-dancer and seven belly-dancing skirts? (For the record, the answers were 'yes' and 'yes'.) So what precisely is the point of Billion Dollar Playground? As ever, Heaven came to the rescue by supplying the answer. For all the contrived plotting, the programme's main job is clearly to have the same effect on us as her job has on Heaven. 'I love being able to live vicariously through the guests!' she declared, representing the audience once again. The Trouble with Mr Doodle was a curious tale, efficiently, if somewhat incuriously, told. As a boy, Sam Cox would spend 15 hours a day drawing. As a young man, he adopted the persona of Mr Doodle for Instagram videos of himself in increasingly spectacular doodling action. He also created an entire mythology of Mr Doodle's struggle to create 'Doodleworld' on earth. His admittedly pretty nifty scribbles were then spotted by a Hong Kong art dealer and his large-scale works began selling for up to a million dollars. The money allowed him to realise his life-long dream of buying a mansion and having it stripped out and painted white so that he could cover every square inch inside and out with, as you might imagine, doodles. Understandably, this already seemed to his parents and unexpected girlfriend Alena (all of whom appeared here, along with the man himself) a touch monomaniacal. But it turned into full-blown psychosis in 2022 when Sam Cox disappeared and a hallucinating Mr D. took over completely. Sectioned under the Mental Health Act, he was put in a cell where, deprived of drawing equipment, he doodled on the walls with tomato soup. At this stage, a happy ending didn't seem likely. Yet that's what the programme now brought us. Having slowly got better, Sam toyed with killing off Mr Doodle but, realising he couldn't live without him, returned to finish decorating the house and to marry the preternaturally patient Alena. After explaining his 'psychotic episode' online, he also received much restorative sympathy from his Instagram followers. Of course, you could see why the programme chose to take everybody's word that Sam/Mr Doodle is fully recovered, if only out of good manners. Nonetheless, the decision to do so meant that several questions were left unanswered – and indeed unasked. Doesn't Alena find their (let's just say) odd-looking home a little oppressive? Has Sam Cox genuinely made his peace with Mr Doodle – and, if so, how? Above all, are the programme-makers really so sure that everything's now fine?
