Zayn Malik broke hearts in 2015 when he announced his departure from One Direction and, on Wednesday, was ready to reveal a little more about his feelings on his former bandmates now that they’ve all moved on to their own projects.

Zayn, 28, guested on SiriusXM’s Debatable and when asked to compare solo careers and who he’d rank as number two to himself, he admits Niall Horan is “his favorite.”

“He makes the best music,” Zayn gushed and took his praise a step further by admitting, “He makes better music that me! I’m a Niall fan.”

With that bombshell out of the way, the “Pillowtalk” singer was asked about his beef with the Grammys, hearkening back to his profanity-laced tweets where he put the Academy on blast, claiming, “Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there’s no nomination considerations.”

The tweets were seen as a subtle jab at Zayn’s other bandmate, Harry Styles, who was nominated for several awards.

The British singer cleared the air about that, too, during the interview.

“It was nothing to do with the competition and rivalry. It was nothing personal in any sense,” attested Zayn. “It was a broader statement to the whole organization.”

He continued, “I believe there’s a way about music that is made and doesn’t even get an acknowledgement for certain reasons, political reasons, hand-shaking reasons, private performance reasons that we don’t need to go into. I said everything I needed to say online.”

The “Better” singer, who has yet to receive a Grammy nod, furthered, “Even if they nominated me at this stage, I wouldn’t even go and accept the award because it doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“I don’t believe it showcases the best talent in the industry,” he concluded. “They control what they want to control.”

By Megan Stone
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