Relevance has nothing to do with what he said. He's not a brand. That success is One Direction. That is the brand. He wasn't going to release his first album and sell like it had One Direction's name on it. How deluded do you have to be to even believe that? Just because he was in that group doesn't mean he was going to ride off that success as a solo artist too. He needs to build up his own name first and get people to listen to him outside of 1D. Especially when he was not even the face of the group ala Beyoncé or JT. Therefore no, this is not embarrassing. It's a fine start. And don't even bring up the "his first single went #1" argument. Flawed logic if there ever was one.
It's a little silly comparing solo Zayn to a group of 4 personalities, all of which have their own fanbase. It's also worth mentioning 1D released in the final quarter and had an album on preorder for months. They also had the hype of now being a foursome album.
In relation to winning, 1D are gone and not coming back; aside from Harry and maybe liam, both of whom have good will behind them, none of the others will get the same success.
I think it should also be mentioned that a lot of people are still very angry and upset with him over his messy behaviour on twitter.
Zayn’s debut solo album, Mind of Mine, is heading for a No. 1 bow atop the Billboard 200 chart. Industry forecasters suggest the set, which was released on March 25 through RCA Records, could earn upwards of 160,000 equivalent album units in the week ending March 31. Of that sum, perhaps 120,000 could be pure album sales
the album was even top5 on iTunes, sales 