ZAYN'S REIGN

In other ex-1D news, RCA’s ZAYN—having jettisoned his surname and stuck down the caps-lock key upon parting ways with his old mates—is blowing up out of the box with lead single “PILLOWTALK.” The track has been racking up impressive sales and streams worldwide.

Upon its release last week, “PILLOWTALK” promptly plumped up at retail, moving more than 80k domestically on day one (1/29) and about 200k in its opening weekend. It summarily displaced the week’s other big new single, Rihanna’s “Work” f/Drake, from the #1 perch on the iTunes singles chart—in the U.S., U.K. and more than 60 other countries. (It’s currently #2, behind Drake’s new joint).

In the U.S., led by Team RCA's Joe Riccitelli, early sales have been powered by crucial Pop radio airplay from major-market stations like L.A.’s KIIS-FM (41x), satellite behemoth SiriusXM Hits 1 (33x), KYLD San Francisco (32x), KHTS San Diego (30x), KDND Sacramento (30x), KZZP Philadelphia (28x), WIOQ Philadelphia (25x), WRVW Nashville (25x) and B96 Chicago (20x), as Mediabase data indicates. ZAYN is the first announced performer for the KIIS Wango Tango wingding on 5/14. “PILLOWTALK” will chart at the format next week.

In the U.K. the cut was playlisted at BBC Radio 1 and a new addition at commercial leader Capital FM. Also released via RCA overseas, it looks set to reach #1 on the Official Singles Chart on Friday, based on midweek data. The track is currently 23k combined sales ahead of its closest competitor, Jonas Blue’s “Fast Car” (Virgin EMI). “Pillow Talk” is sitting at #4 on the RadioMonitor charts with 1,090 plays since Friday, and #1 on the U.K. iTunes singles chart.

The track has earned some 8.2 million global streams on Spotify, with about 3m in the U.S. alone. It tops the streaming service’s Global Viral 50 chart. It's also earned more than 2m Apple Music streams. In the U.K. it will challenge Adele’s “Hello” as Blighty’s most-streamed track in a single week ever. It’s also the most-streamed track for any male artist on day one in the U.K.

A steamy video for “PILLOWTALK” accompanied its retail and radio bow; by early Monday it had earned about 27 million views.

ZAYN’s solo full-length, Mind of Mine, is due out on 3/25.