Zayn Malik and his ex-fiancée, Perrie Edwards, just released new singles on the same day. And while the former One Direction member said he’s ready to get drunk and “think away the pain,” she’s not willing to let the memory of a failed romance go.
Malik, 31, and Edwards, 30, dropped “Alienated” and “Forget About Us,” respectively, on Friday, April 12. The former is the second single from Malik’s upcoming fourth studio album, Room Under the Stairs. He previously released the lead single, “What I Am,” last month.
In a video shared via Instagram on Monday, April 8, Malik said that “Alienated” was the first song he wrote for the record, which helped him “mold and shape” the album’s sound.
“I don’t even know what to call it genre-wise ’cause I don’t want to say country,” the One Direction alum added of the tune. “I think it’s my version of, like, blues.”
On the track, Malik laments the “age-old mistake” of trying “to disconnect my body from my soul” during a night of drinking with someone.
“You let me be intoxicated on my own,” he sings. As the title implies, the song is about feeling alone and disconnected from the world. “And I’ve been feeling alienated,” he sings on the chorus. “On my spaceship alone / Say goodbye to the past / Leave it all with a laugh / ‘Cause you always was right all along.”
While Malik has been making music as a solo artist since 2016, “Forget About Us” marks Edwards’ debut solo single. She rose to prominence as a member of the girl group Little Mix, who have been on a temporary hiatus since 2022.
While Malik is trying to leave his past with a “laugh,” Edwards’ debut solo single is about keeping the memory of a former love fresh. “I heard you fell in love with somebody new / I know you heard that I’ve found someone too/ Saw you blew up, and I’m proud of you / But I don’t wanna hear those songs no more, yeah,” she sings at the start of the song.
Elsewhere on the emotional pop song, Edwards sings how she knew “we were never perfect, but I think about the life we never had (Had) / Yeah, we both found different love, and we’re movin’ on / Let’s leave it buried where it was, but / I don’t want you ever to forget about us.”
Edwards initially didn’t want to write her own music when she first started to think about a solo career.
“I was just so insecure,” she told NME on April 5. “I sat down with my label at the start and I was like, ‘Guys, I don’t want to write anything. I just want to be sent songs. I just want to sing them.’ … But then they were like, ‘Why don’t you just try some sessions with friends and people you’ve worked with in the past that make you feel comfortable?’”
Edwards explained that she became more “confident” as she did more cowriting sessions.
“And then I started taking the reins a bit more and it just kind of spiraled from there,” she said.
“Forget About Us” started as a demo sent to Edwards by Ed Sheeran, but she soon put her own spin on the tune.
“Ed sent me the song and at the time, the lyrics and concept were very direct to what it was about. And I rang him and was like, ‘Would you mind if I just tweaked little bits?’” she recalled. “And he was totally cool with it, he was so supportive. He was like, ‘I want you to take full ownership in it — whatever you’re not comfortable with, change it, and we’ll work on it from there.’”
In the song, Edwards looks back on an ex who got away.
“I don’t want you ever to forget about us / I know we were never perfect but I think about the life we never had,” she sings in the chorus. “Yeah we both found different love, now we’re moving on / Let’s leave it buried where it was.”
Malik and Edwards’ dueling singles come nearly nine years after they called off their engagement in August 2015. The pair started dating in 2011 after meeting on the set of The X Factor UK. In Little Mix’s 2016 book, Our World, Edwards claimed that the relationship had ended via text message, although she didn’t mention Malik by name.
“It was horrible, the worst time in my life. A four-year relationship, two-year engagement ended by a simple text message. Just like that,” she wrote.
Malik previously denied that he broke up with Edwards via text during a 2015 interview with Fader.
“I have more respect for Perrie than to end anything over text message. I love her a lot, and I always will, and I would never end our relationship over four years like that,” he told the outlet. “She knows that, I know that, and the public should know that as well.”
Malik went on to date Gigi Hadid on and off from 2015 to 2021. The exes share daughter Khai, 3. Edwards, for her part, moved on with professional footballer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The couple, who share son Axel, 2, announced their engagement in June 2022.
