MUMBAI: Singer Zayn Malik says his decision to leave the popular English-Irish pop boy band One Direction was prompted by an extraterrestrial being.

Malik, who has now embarked on a solo musical career, left the band last year.

Asked in an interview for Britain's Glamour magazine about when he first realised that he no longer wanted to be in the group, Malik said: "An alien spoke to me in a dream", reports usmagazine.com.

Although Malik didn't elaborate the details of his dream, he discussed other interesting things about his life in the interview.

Malik, who is now dating model Gigi Hadid, revealed his first celebrity crush was twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

"They are the same, right," he quipped.

The first person he calls in the morning is his "Mum", and his first tattoo was in honour of his grandfather Walter. As for his musical inspiration, Malik loves Michael Jackson and Bob Marley.

(Source: IANS)