Zayn covers 'Allah Duhai Hai' from 'Race'
British-Pakistani pop singer Zayn, former member of the now defunct boy band One Direction, posted his cover version of the Bollywood chartbuster "Allah Duhai Hai" from the 'Race' series of films on Monday. The kaleidoscopic black-and-white video, shared by Zayn on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter, features occasional bursts of colours. The cover version starts as a trap song before becoming a full-blown house track midway.
Zayn has embarked on a solo career since his departure from One Direction, and the new Allah Duhai Hai cover is the latest example of the singer's fascination and flirtation with Hindi and Urdu music. It gathered pace with Zayn posting his rendition of Kailash Kher's Teri Deewani on Instagram in February. It was greeted with excitement and amusement by fans, and Kher said Zayn did not capture the nuances of his songs and could join the Kailash Kher Academy of Learning Arts to sing properly.
Before Zayn deleted all his photos and videos from Instagram in April, he had uploaded his covers of Hindi songs like "Allah Ke Bande" from the film 'Waisa Bhi Hota Hai' Part II (2003), also sung by Kher. Zayn is currently working on his second solo album, which has no scheduled release date. In February, he told Elle magazine that the new album will have "definitely a lot of Urdu. Some nice qawwali sounds. There might even be some bhangra vibes," and that he has worked with AR Rahman on one song. He also said that he had recorded a song for a Bollywood film.
