Zayn Malik looks set to release a ‘collaboration’ with Jimi Hendrix just days before what would have been the guitarist’s 80th birthday

By Ben Rogerson
published

Teaser video appears to feature the former One Direction member singing Hendrix’s 1971 track Angel

Zayn Malik Jimi Hendrix logo
(Image credit: Zayn Malik/Jimi Hendrix/Twitter)

In a highly unexpected development, it appears that former One Direction member Zayn Malik is set to release a ‘collaboration’ with the late Jimi Hendrix.

In a new teaser video that’s just been posted on both artists’ social media accounts, a ripple of crowd noise leads into what appears to be Hendrix playing the introductory guitar part to Angel, a song lifted from his 1971 posthumous studio album The Cry Of Love.

However, as the vocals kick in, it’s Malik’s voice we hear rather than Hendrix’s, and the phrasing of the first line (“Angel came down from heaven yesterday”) is different to the original.

That’s all we’ve got to go on at this point, though it seems that the track will be revealed in full this Friday, 25 November, just two days before which would have been Hendrix’s 80th birthday. 

Ben Rogerson
Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.