Zayn Malik officially has a new record deal

When Zayn Malik quit One Direction, shouts of “WHYYYY” could be heard across the world. Why would he leave our beloved boy band? What did his future have in store? Now, the mystery is over. Yesterday, Zayn tweeted the news that we had been waiting for for some time: He’s going solo, and signing with RCA.

Here are the tweets that changed history:

Some people took all this talk about “realness” as a diss to One Direction, but it’s really a comment on making music solo, on being able to express his real self, which we totally support. And so does Simon Cowell, whose label previously had the rights to all that Zayn goodness before passing him over to RCA:

This is clearly a really good thing. Although there will always be a Zayn-shaped hole in One Direction, we’re super excited to see what awesome work he’s able to create on his own. Maybe one day he and One Direction can go on tour together? A girl can dream.

(Image via)