diff --git a/gst-libs/gst/tag/meson.build b/gst-libs/gst/tag/meson.build
index 9833859392..27e66fd631 100644
--- a/gst-libs/gst/tag/meson.build
+++ b/gst-libs/gst/tag/meson.build
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ core_conf.set('HAVE_ISO_CODES', have_iso_codes)
 zlib_dep = dependency('zlib', required : false)
 if not zlib_dep.found()
   zlib_dep = cc.find_library('z', required : false)
-  if not zlib_dep.found()
+  if not zlib_dep.found() or not cc.has_header('zlib.h')
     zlib_dep = subproject('zlib').get_variable('zlib_dep')
   endif
 endif