One Direction Zayn Malik Talks Billboard's Top New Artist Of 2012 Win: 'Blown Away'
Zayn Malik of One Direction discussed the coveted honor of being crowned Billboard's Top New Artist of 2012.
When asked by Billboard last week about the group's major win, Malik said he and his band mates were "blown away" by the success they generated in the United States in 2012.
"It is so hard to put into words what 2012 has meant to us. Last year was an amazing year for us, but when our debut album went to No. 1 over here we were blown away by that," he said. "We didn't expect any of the support to the kind of level we were getting out there in the UK. And then we come out eight months later with our second album over here and it goes to No. 1 again...We're incredibly humbled by that."
The 19-year-old admitted in the interview that though he is in a purely pop music band, he was an avid fan of other kinds of music before taking the stage with 1D. He listened to hip-hop and R&B and thought "that was the be all and end all of music."
In the December/January issue of Teen Vogue, Malik was quoted saying 1D is "not too clean-cut." When asked about his role in the band, he called himself "the mediator," saying he "kind of just float[s] around" and is "chilled out" and "laid back."
Coming in at No. 2 in Billboard's Top New Artist category for 2012 is Carley Rae Jepsen and Goyte is No. 3.
For the first time since 1956, the year's three biggest singles are by acts that earned their first pop hit in the past year. On the Billboard Hot 100's year-end chart Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" is No. 1, followed by Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" as No. 2 and fun.'s "We Are Young" (featuring Janelle Monae) as No. 3. Each song was also the artist's debut entry on the Hot 100 chart.
