Birthday Special: A look at Zayn Malik's incredible journey that made him ZStans favourite youth icon

Pillowtalk video sensation star, Zayn Malik turns 28 today. He is one of the most loved singers, a talented artist and girls go gaga over his cute looks. Ever since the start of his career, he has maintained urban music as his main musical influence.

Zayn is known for his belting and falsetto singing techniques and or hitting high notes with his vocals. Not only is the singer famous for his songs and tunes, but also for his love of wife Gigi Hadid and they share respect for each other's work.

As Zayn Malik turns 28, let us take a glimpse at his work, love life, net worth and some rare and unseen pictures. 

The early life of Zayn

Zayn was born on Jan. 12, 1993, in Bradford, England. Malik's father, Yaser Malik, is a British Pakistani and his mother, Tricia Brannan Malik, is English.

Malik grew up in East Bowling, located south of the Bradford city centre. He has been raised in a working-class neighbourhood and attended Lower Fields Primary School and Tong High School in Bradford.

Zayn wanted to be an English teacher

Zayn performed on stage for the first time when singer Jay Sean had paid a school visit. You'd be amazed to know that Zayn had the interest to become an English teacher before he ventured into the world of music.

How he bagged his first single

In 2011 Zayn had made success with his group with a debut album Up All Night on Nov. 18 in the UK and Ireland. To boost the record, the teen-pop album produced four singles -- What Makes You Beautiful, and Gotta Be You, One Thing, and More than This. The album topped the charts in 16 countries, and with 4.5 million copies sold, and Up All Night became the third highest-selling album of 2012.

Furthermore, to promote the album the band went all around for the Up All Night Tour from Dec. 2011 to July 2012, and generated over $5 million from 3 legs and 54 stops. Take Me Home, another album released in 2012 had brought them great success.

Another hit, Midnight Memories released in 2013 by them, had the album-titled song, Best Song Ever, You and I, and Story of My Life assisting as its singles. It sold 187,660 copies in just four days, and in only five weeks, the number ascended to a million rank. In the same year, their documentary 'This Is Us' was also released worldwide.

When Gigi and Zayn made an appearance

As a solo artist, Zayn made his debut with Mind of Mine in 2016. His sweetheart Gigi Hadid made an appearance on the album's smooth-pop R&B lead single, Pillowtalk. This album had broken records on iTunes and led him to success. In the same year, Zayn set his vocal on the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack, 'I Don't Wanna Live Forever' with Tay. The song won them a couple of awards, including the MTV VMAs for Best Collaboration of the Year and the iHeartRadio Titanium Awards.

Here are some of the best highlights of Zayn Malik's career:

• PILLOWTALK (Song, 2016)
• The mind of Mine (Album, 2016)
• MTV Music Video Awards (Best Collabroation, 2017) 
• Let Me (Song, 2018)

Zayn Malik is one of the biggest names in the music industry currently. He has also been making waves for his glam quotient and has featured in the lists of 'Sexiest Men' published by several magazines.

Net worth

As of 2020, Zayn Malik's net worth is roughly $65 million, as stated by several media reports.

Timeline of Zayn and Gigi's love story 

December 2015: They made their Instagram debut as a couple.

The couple confirmed their romance with a black-and-white Instagram photo, which Malik posted on Instagram. The photo is now deleted.

January 2016:

Hadid shared a filtered Instagram photo of herself wearing "Z" necklace on Malik's birthday. She captioned the photo "ZDAY."

April 2016: They appeared as a couple in a Vogue spread.

Malik and Hadid travelled to Naples, Italy to shoot photos for a magazine cover. In the photos, which were taken by Mario Testino, the couple kissed on a balcony, rode a scooter and embraced each other in bed.

December 2016: Zayn collaborated on a song with Taylor Swift, one of Hadid's best friends.

During an interview on Sirius XM's "Morning Mash-Up," Malik was asked how he landed Hadid as a girlfriend.

"I just asked her. It was pretty straight up," he said, adding, "I just asked her if she wanted to go on a date. I was in New York".

April 2020: TMZ reported that the couple is expecting their first child.

July 15, 2020: Hadid showed her baby bump on social media.

August 26, 2020: Hadid exposed her baby bump in a series of black-and-white photos she shared on Instagram.

September 23, 2020: Malik announced that he and Hadid had welcomed their first daughter.

Zayn's latest album Vibez

Malik surprised his fans by sharing a customised phone line +1 (323)-991-ZAYN on both Twitter and Instagram. When you dial the number, you can listen to snippets from songs featured in Nobody is Listening. Replying to her man's tweet was Gigi Hadid, who cryptically tweeted, "ext. 6! ext. 8! oh also 2. But honestly, they all slap." Given that Nobody is Listening tracklist is already out. If we go as per the numerical order, the 25-year-old supermodel is referring to the songs Better (which was released a few days after baby ZiGi was born in September 2020) and Connexion and Unf**switchable, which are yet to be revealed.

Check out Gigi Hadid hyping Zayn Malik's album Nobody is Listening below:

Songs of Zayn Malik

Here's wishing Zayn Malik a very happy and musical birthday!