Zayn Malik has collaborated with American singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson to bring fans a new duet, entitled ‘To Begin Again’
The song which dropped on March 17th 2021 tells a story of rebirth after a near-apocalypse. The song’s narrative hits home for all as it relates to the current crisis in which the world has faced with COVID, along with the ray of hope brought by the recent vaccine, which is meant to bring the world back from the brink of destruction. With lyrics such as, ‘”When the world was ending/ I’d hold you in my arms/ And we talked about the places we’d never been/ When the world was ending/ We’d hold on to the past/ Because it’s all we thought that we would ever see”, it is a ballad filled with hope which the world needs to hear.
Speaking with Radio.com, Malik expressed his joy with the track as well as working with Michaelson. Within the interview he also spoke about the relationship to the current pandemic in which the track holds. “It speaks volumes to the way that people are feeling and it resonated with me and that’s why I wanted to be a part of it”
Michaelson, who has been busy penning the soundtrack for her upcoming stage adaption of the famous film, ‘The Notebook’, has said that she wrote the song soon after the news of Joe Biden’s recent win of the US precedency. The songwriter had this to say in a recent statement about the event, “I wrote ‘To Begin Again’ the night that Biden won. There was so much joy in my neighbourhood. Pots and pans being banged out of windows. Horns and whistles. Clapping. Singing! The collective sigh of relief resonated with me in such a way that I had to get it out musically. I sat at the piano and wrote most of the song right there in 15 minutes,”
She then continued to remember the moment she realised that the song was meant to be a duet. “I love ZAYN’s voice, especially when he goes high and sweet and sad. It was the perfect fit. The song is a song of hope and of release. Of beginning again…” Luckily Zayn’s representatives had contacted her in January last year to express his interest in working together.
The former One Direction star took to Twitter on March 17th to inform fans of the release of the pair’s optimistic ballad.
.@ingridmusic https://t.co/RDgnLWB0QM
— zayn (@zaynmalik) March 17, 2021
Malik, who left supergroup boyband One Direction in 2015, recently released his third studio album as a solo artist, under the new name, Zayn. The album entitled ‘Nobody is Listening‘ was released in January of this year and reached number 17 on the UK album charts. The album follows his first two studio albums, ‘Mind of Mine‘ and ‘Icarus Falls‘ and featured two singles, ‘Better‘ and ‘Vibez‘. The singer’s solo career started with a bang with the release of debut single, ‘Pillowtalk‘ which saw Malik’s girlfriend, American supermodel Gigi Hadid featured in the video. The single, released in January 2016 gave the singer his first solo number one.
Click here to stream the duet.
