Zayn Malik's brutal new lyrics confirm what we've always feared about our favourite pop groups.

Zayn Malik was one of the biggest stars in the world as part of One Direction. The British-Irish boy band became a global phenomenon after their formation on The X Factor in 2010, selling millions of records worldwide, embarking on four world tours, and spawning a level of fan devotion that bordered on religious. They were, by every metric, one of the most successful pop groups of all time.

But success, as we know, doesn't shield you from everything. The group experienced their share of hardships — intense scrutiny, relentless touring schedules, the eventual departure of Malik himself in 2015, followed by their hiatus a year later… and most recently, the tragic passing of one of the group's members, Liam Payne.

Now, nearly a decade since leaving the group, Malik has opened up about the racism he experienced. And he's done it in perhaps the most direct way possible: through music.

Watch the teaser for Fuchsia Sea. Article continues after video.

In a teaser for his new song 'Fuchsia Sea', shared on Instagram over the weekend, Malik raps over a punchy piano beat with lyrics that cut straight to the heart of his experience: "I worked hard in a white band/And they still laughed at the Asian."

The line is stark and impossible to misinterpret. Fans have reacted with a mixture of support and calls for public apologies on his behalf, with many praising his courage to finally address what they'd long suspected.

Now, this isn't the first time Malik has spoken about facing racism. In a 2012 interview, he revealed the online harassment he received during his time in the group.

"Nasty things [were said] like I'm a terrorist, and this and that. How can you justify that? How can you call me that and get away with it?" he told The Sun. As the son of a Pakistani Muslim father and an English mother of Irish descent, Malik has previously discussed facing bigotry, particularly growing up in Bradford, England.

But here's the uncomfortable truth: he isn't alone in this experience. Not even close.

Image: Getty

The pattern is depressingly familiar across the biggest pop groups of the past few decades.

Mel B, the only Black member of the Spice Girls, has spoken about the "obvious racism" she faced during her time in the group. She recalled being told by a hair stylist that she needed to straighten her natural hair. In another instance, she was asked to leave a designer clothes shop while she was with her band mates.

"So much of the racism you feel as a person of colour growing up in a largely white culture is not spoken aloud," she told the Daily Star.

In Little Mix, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall — the group's mixed-race members — have also been vocal about the racism they faced, both from the industry and fans. Pinnock, in particular, detailed her personal experiences with racial discrimination and colourism in the music industry in her 2021 documentary Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power.

Image: Getty

Normani has also endured horrific racist abuse as the only Black member of the girl-group Fifth Harmony, so much so that she was forced to issue a letter on X (formerly Twitter) to announce she was taking a break from social media.

"I've never been one to deny anyone of their opinions, but over the course of this last week and especially over the last 48 hours, I've not just been cyber bullied I've been racially bullied," she wrote. "I can't subject myself any longer to the hate."

To my fans: pic.twitter.com/7yICp10G5Z

— Normani (@Normani) August 7, 2016

Then there's Keisha Buchanan from Sugababes, who has spoken candidly about her experiences of being labelled an "angry black woman" when it came to the group's disputes.

"I used to think that racism was when someone directly looked at you and called you a racist word," she said. "I didn't realise that there are so many different ways that a person, that people, can be racist or prejudiced."

Image: Getty

Even Simon Webbe — the sole black member of Blue — had, what I can only imagine, was a deeply confronting experience when his bandmate Lee Ryan was charged with racially aggravated assault against a Black British Airways flight attendant in 2023.

Ryan's response to his actions was textbook.

"I'm sorry. My band member is black, I'm not racist, I've had black girlfriends, mixed-race girlfriends," he said during an appearance in court.

It's the classic defence that completely misses the point — having a Black bandmate or dating Black women doesn't make you immune to racist behaviour. And it's a sad reminder to people of colour that — despite being surrounded by self-proclaimed allies and friends — you're still not safe.

The music industry has always had a diversity problem, but there's something particularly insidious about what happens within these pop bands. When you're the token person of colour in a group designed for mass appeal, you become both hypervisible and invisible — scrutinised for being different while simultaneously having your contributions minimised.

Image: Getty

These artists are often expected to be grateful for their success, to smile and stay quiet about the microaggressions, the different treatment, the way they're positioned in photos or given fewer lines in songs. They're told they're "lucky" to be there, as if their talent wasn't what earned them their spot in the first place.

Malik's decision to address this through his art feels significant. There's power in naming the experience so directly, in refusing to soften the edges or make it palatable for those who might be uncomfortable with the truth.

Pop music has always been about creating fantasies — of perfect harmony, of effortless success, of five (or four, or three) people who just happened to find each other and make magic. But behind those carefully constructed images are real people with real experiences, and for too many artists of colour, those experiences include a very specific kind of isolation and discrimination.

Malik's 'Fuchsia Sea' has not even been released yet, but it's already done something important: it's forced us to confront the uncomfortable truth about what it really means to be the only person of colour on the world's biggest stage. And it's about time.

Feature Image: Getty.