ZAYN – What I Am

Multiplatinum-selling recording artist, songwriter, producer, and philanthropist ZAYN has released his soulful new single “What I Am”. The song is the first release from his highly anticipated fourth studio album, ROOM UNDER THE STAIRS, due May 17, 2024.

For the past six years, ZAYN has been writing and crafting ROOM UNDER THE STAIRS at his home studio in rural PA. This album marks his most personal release to date, reflecting where he is in life, while exploring the complexities of healing, stillness, and growth. It also sees the genre-bending artist explore a new sound, leaning into his soulful vocals, live instrumentation, and poetic lyricism as a songwriter.

This is my favorite album that I’ve made to date, mainly because it comes from a place of sheer honesty and vulnerability. I wanted each song to feel as if it was just me sitting beside you telling you how I feel, singing directly to you. It’s raw and stripped back and the type of music I always hoped to make. Working with Dave Cobb has been an amazing experience. The way he’s elevated the music is second to none, and he has done an incredible job helping me create this record. I hope we can take listeners on some whimsical, magical journey, and that they enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it. I think just being where I was at that time, staying away from things and living with my own thoughts inspired me to want to write something from that place. I’ve got to put this out as a whole body of work, it’s something for myself, not even just for the world.

ROOM UNDER THE STAIRS was co-produced by ZAYN with 9x GRAMMY Award winning producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, A Star Is Born, Brandi Carlile). Cobb came on board after hearing the songs ZAYN had crafted, marveled by how raw and honest it was. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone,

What got me about Zayn was his voice, you can hear love, loss, pain, triumph and humanity in it. Zayn has really created his own universe on this record, he really has no fear and is speaking straight from his soul. – Dave Cobb

Ahead of the release, ZAYN made a surprise appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to tease the single, and sat down for an interview on Hot Ones, sending his fans into a frenzy of what more they can expect from ZAYN’s most personal music to date.

To coincide with the pre-order, fans will be able to purchase two special vinyl editions, a signed ‘Studio Edition’ with exclusive cover art, a limited-edition color vinyl, and two CD’s- one that is signed and both with special booklets including lyrics.

Listen to this song and more new music premieres on “The New Music Show”, playing daily at 5.30pm PT/8.30pm ET on Channel R – Today’s Hits & Your All-Time Favorites.