Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Malik Heard of American Idol Season 21

American Idol returns to ABC on Sunday, Feb. 19 for its Season 21 premiere.

Here’s more about Malik.

* He’s one of about a half dozen alumni of The Voice rumored to have done well on the current season of American Idol.

* Malik, from Dallas, Texas, was 18 when he auditioned for Season 10 of The Voice, which aired in the spring of 2016. He turned two chairs with his blind audition performance of “Chains” by Nick Jonas and joined Team Christina Aguilera.

* His most memorable moment on The Voice came in the battle round when he performed “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” with Bryan Bautista. Bryan was declared the winner, but Malik was so impressive, he received a rare triple steal — meaning all of the show’s other coaches wanted him to join their teams.

* Malik switched to Team Pharrel Williams only to be eliminated in the next round of the competition. But today, that studio version of the “Man’s World” duet has been streamed more than 1 million times on Spotify.

* Malik hasn’t released original music since the show, but he’s posted several covers to YouTube and attracted more than 5,000 followers and more than 45,000 likes on his TikTok. You can check out one of those YouTube covers below.

* He grew up in an athletic family. His mother played basketball in college; his father was an All-American in track. Malik began to follow in their footsteps, before decided to pursue music instead during his sophomore year in high school.

* “I’m thankful that they put me into sports,” he said of his parents around the time of his Voice audition. “It showed me work ethic. It showed me how not to give up.”

* While attending Sachse High school, he joined the acapella and chamber choirs and was part of a school-based pop group called Mane Attraction, which included five guys and five gals who had to audition to earn those roles. Mane Attraction performed at civic events and performed music from a wide range of genres.

* Malik was also was a member of the “Fire House” choir at his church, which led praise and worship services and performed at youth conferences.

Malik on social media:
Instagram
TikTok
Twitter
YouTube
Facebook