21 May 2024 , 20:40
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Zayn Malik has awakened the wrath of fans after cancelling an album signing engagement at the last minute.
The 31-year-old singer released his fourth solo studio album, titled Room Under The Stairs, earlier this month. Fans in London expected to meet the singer and have vinyls and CDs signed by him at an event scheduled to take place at Banquet Records in Kingston-upon-Thames.
Some of the singer’s fans had jetted to the British capital from across Europe for a chance to meet the star. But instead, they were met with disappointment as the event was cancelled at the last minute with “unforeseen circumstances” being used to blame the abrupt change of plans.
One Direction star Zayn had been due to attend the record shop both days over the weekend - with signings due to take place on Saturday and Sunday. However, it was announced that the Saturday signing had been cancelled with fans only then able to attend the shop on Sunday to meet the star.
The record stare announced online: “Due to unforeseen circumstances today’s ZAYN signing is postponed until tomorrow. We’ll email you very soon to explain further with options for tomorrow morning’s slots… massive apologies.” Subsequent statements shared via X revealed new time slots that existing fans could then attend. The signing that was due on Sunday was then branded “a hell of a shift” as Zayn then met with “thousands” of his fans.
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Zayn's album, titled Room Under The Stairs, was released last Friday (Mercury)However, many were left fuming over the sudden change of arrangements that was announced hours before the sining was all due to kick off. One fan raged against the record store, writing online: “lol my flight is tonight this is SO UNPROFESSIONAL.” And another hit out writing: “I’m on the bloody taxi to go to the signing and now it’s postponed??”
But others were more sympathetic, with one writing: “maybe instead of whining to banquet, just accept that unforeseen circumstances can happen? yes it’s unfortunate and sucks, but things are just unpredictable.”
One fuming parent hit out at the record store and Zayn for leaving many fans in the lurch. Painting a chaotic picture, they complained to the MailOnline: "There were lots of disappointed faces as fans – mainly teen girls – had flocked from across Europe to see him.
"I’d travelled in from South London so not very far but some of the girls near me had come all the way from Germany. I don’t think a lot of them were able to make Sunday’s signing session and were absolutely gutted. There were already hundreds of girls milling around the outside of the shop when I turned up with my daughter on Saturday afternoon, the queue was snaking round the corner.
"There was supposed to be four hour-long signing sessions which started at 2pm and we were in the first. But come 2pm there was no sign of Zayn Malik and it was nearly an hour before we were told that he wasn’t coming due to unforeseen circumstances. Nobody seemed to have a clue what was going on."
Following the Sunday signing - which went ahead with a slight delay - Banquet Records wrote on Instagram: “a hell of a shift from ZAYN at Banquet today. thanks to the thousands who came to Kingston celebrating the release of Room Under The Stairs.”