Following on from Zayn Malik’s departure from One Direction, he was still signed to Simon Cowell’s label, Syco, as a solo artist. Simon had apparently been keen to hold on to him. ‘Simon was very understanding about him leaving the band, but quickly made it clear he would stay a Syco artist for his future projects,’ a source had told The Sun at the time.
But Simon has since dropped Zayn from his label, and the crooner, who’s always expressed an interest in R&B over the stadium-pop One Direction do, has signed to RCA, the same label behind Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Hudson, Mark Ronson, Miley Cyrus, Sia, Chris Brown and many, many more (Dido, anyone?).
To announce the news, he posted to Twitter a photo of himself signing the contract along with this comment: ‘I guess I never explained why I left, it was for this moment to be given the opportunity to show you who i really am! #realmusic #RCA !! ... #REALME’
Zayn’s language sure upset fans, who wondered stuff like this:
But anyway, he seemed unfazed by it all, tweeting #REALME again, then retweeting this:
Plus, if he really is upset about what the fans say, he can put it in a soppy song. After all, now that he and Naughty Boy are over, he’s moved on to working with Frank Ocean’s producer Malay. And if the Directioners aren’t out to support Zayn? Well, he can channel all that upset into all that work RCA’s about to give him!
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Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.