After deleting every Gigi Hadid and other photo off his Instagram, Zayn Malik confirmed this weekend it really was because he was replicating Swift's new-music-release-social-media-purge PR move.
Either way, it's good news. Malik's brand new single, 'Let Me,' finally dropped this morning. The rollout included a mini movie-esque music video featuring the most Gigi Hadid-like love interest that isn't Hadid herself. His new ex Hadid liked his Instagram announcement last night, so no drama or shade here.
Plot-wise, Malik's character gets involved with some shady guys, and the girl becomes their leverage over him briefly until love prevails. She rebels against the bad guys and they escape together on a speed boat.
Nothing overtly symbolic, but some of the shots look like they could've come straight from Hadid's Instagram. The girl's hair alone is very doppelgänger.
Ahead of the long-awaited drop of 'Let Me', Zayn spoke to Radio 1's Nick Grimshaw on today's (April 12) Breakfast Show about the new, 'more confident' place he finds himself in.
Even if his new single is all about 'duvet days and vanilla ice cream'.
Zayn told Grimmy that his new album has been in the works "for a long time", admitting that it had been "hard work" to perfect the finished product. "[It was] also a lot of fun."
"Pumped" for fans to hear his more mature sound, Zayn hinted at how his second album will be different to his 2016 debut Mind of Mine: "It's a bit different to my last record in terms of it's matured, got a bit older...
"[I'm] definitely [more confident]. I think my confidence has definitely grown in the last year and a half," he added before going on to hint at "personal issues".
Although we'll have to see how, if at all, Zayn's "personal issues" are hinted at in his new music, the singer did allude to grappling with post-One Direction life, saying that he found himself dealing with "not really knowing what was going on for a while... not being as prominent".
Despite all of Zayn's new grown-up material, fans will be pleased to hear that the old Zayn they fell in love with hasn't gone anywhere – there's no weird Harry Styles-esque accent here.
Joking that his northern accent was "thicker than ever", Zayn told Grimmy: "Bang on. It's not going nowhere.
"You can take the boy out of Bradford, you can't take the Bradford out of the boy."
