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Zayn Malik’s Solo Career Starts With a Super-Melancholy Love Song, Naturally

It’s here! Photo: Karwai Tang/Getty Images

Because when you want to distance yourself from your boy-band past, always release a schmaltzy acoustic love song. While Zayn Malik might’ve said he left One Direction to “be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax,” he not-so-quietly spent the next few days after the split doing the exact opposite. Photos of him arriving at a recording studio quickly emerged, and there were reports that he’d been prepping a solo career with help from British DJ Naughty Boy. Now we have a taste of what he’s been working on. After a brief exchange of words between Zayn’s ex-bandmate Louis Tomlinson and Naughty Boy, the producer leaked a demo of Zayn’s new single, “I Won’t Mind.” Want a good ugly-cry? Play this one on a rainy day and pretend that when Zayn sings, “and right from the start, you know I got you,” he’s talking to all the Directioners he abandoned.

Hear Zayn Malik’s First Solo Song