Thumbs Up or Down: Zayn Gets Real Reviews from Daughter Khai
The singer opened up about parenting, pop stardom, and winning over his biggest little fan.
Ahead of the release of his latest album, “Konnakol,” Zayn spoke with host Brady on The Pulse and revealed what his daughter, Khai, thinks of his music and career.
“I don’t want to play [my songs] to her because, obviously, there’s cuss words and stuff in there, concepts [that are] a bit adult,” Zayn told Brady, “but she loves my music, and she definitely gives me an opinion. She does this thing where she does like thumbs up, thumbs down, thumb sideways, and if you get a thumbs up and a thumb sideways, it means it’s pretty good.”
Zayn confirmed Khai gave him a “double thumbs up for a few songs” but also a sideways thumb for “one or two that she wasn’t really into” on “Konnakol.”
“She’s into TWICE. She’s into BLACKPINK,” Zayn said of his daughter’s taste in music, “and that was kind of, you know, a big reason behind why I did the feature with Jisoo, if I’m being honest, because my daughter’s such a big fan, and I wanted to be cool.”
He said his 2025 collaboration with Jisoo of BLACKPINK, titled “Eyes Closed,” scored him “some good dad points,” but that five-year-old Khai still doesn’t really understand her dad’s star power.
“She has some concept of it,” Zayn explained. “I don’t think she really understands what it is, but she knows her dad’s a pop star, and her dad sings, and she flexes it a little bit sometimes, as a five-year-old does. So yeah, she’s somewhat aware, but I don’t think she understands the full extent of it.”
