Zayn Malik teases new song Late Nights after upsetting fans with BBC Radio 1 cancellation

Zayn Malik solo — Zayn Malik cancelled his appearance on Greg James' BBC Radio 1 show on 1 February Reuters/Andrew Burton

He is yet to apologise for cancelling his latest promotional appearance, but Zayn Malik is consoling his devastated fans with new music instead. The former One Direction singer had been due to appear on BBC Radio 1 but pulled out at the last minute, later sharing a teaser of new material from his forthcoming debut solo album.

Fans were expecting to catch Malik, 23, promoting his new single Pillowtalk on Greg James' Radio 1 show on 1 February 2016, however, the singer cancelled his appearance just 30 minutes beforehand. Expressing their disappointment over Malik's no-show, a BBC source allegedly told the Mail Online: "Radio 1 has supported Zayn from day one so it's very disappointing for all the UK fans not to see him. They had so many people outside the studios and Greg had some big surprises lined up."

The news comes just days after the former boy-band singer dropped out of his scheduled appearance on BBC One's Graham Norton Show on 29 January, insisting that he would visit the talk show at a later date. Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan has slammed Malik for being unreliable, and described the singer as "the serial pain in the backside of the music industry".

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— zayn (@zaynmalik) February 2, 2016

He added: "I interviewed them all for a YouTube thing two years ago, before he left the band... he was just surly the entire time. I thought, 'If you don't wanna be a popstar, go and do something else. Go and clean drains'. Now he's being deliberately rude to people, being rude, being difficult. Get over yourself, mate."

Malik is still scheduled to appear on New York's Elvis Duran radio show on 2 February, and although he has not addressed the Radio 1 cancellation, the pop star retweeted a message from his label RCA Records reminding fans to tune into his interview on the US radio station.

The Bradford native later tweeted a 10-second clip of himself topless while listening to one of his new songs Late Nights. Malik's first single Pillowtalk, which is to feature on his debut album Mind Of Mine, is on course to reach number one in the UK on Friday, with the track so far 23,000 copies ahead of its nearest rival, Fast Car from Jonas Blue.