Zayn Sets Return to Stage With His First Ever Solo Tour ‘Stairway to the Sky’

Zayn‘s recent appearances on The Tonight Show haven’t been for sit-down interviews or late-night games. When he stopped by in May, he crashed host Jimmy Fallon’s opening monologue to hand him a note announcing his fourth studio album, Room Under the Stairs, and played a snippet from an unreleased song before leaving without saying a word. Zayn used the same tactic on last night’s show — but this time, he was announcing his first-ever solo headlining tour.

Just like before, Zayn walked onto the stage to the sound of shrieks and screams from the audience and pressed play on a laptop, which started playing his latest single “Stardust.” The singer passed Fallon a note card and silently went on about his night. “Hey Jimmy, great to see you, mate. I’m going on my first ever solo tour this Autumn,” Fallon read on Zayn’s behalf, evoking a bizarre British accent. “So maybe when you’re done picking apples with your buds, you can come check out my Stairway to the Sky tour across the U.S. and U.K. I’m making an official announcement tomorrow morning. Let me know what day you need tickets for.”

Zayn’s Stairway to the Sky tour marks his first run of live shows in nearly a decade, since his time as a member of One Direction. The musician has scarcely performed live since leaving the band in March 2015, citing severe anxiety as the main blockade keeping him from touring. Earlier this year, he spent his album release night performing to a sold-out crowd at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire for what marked his first solo show in more than five years. Performing on his own has taken some time to get used to, but Zayn is ready to get this show on the road.

The Stairway to the Sky tour will kick off on Oct. 23 in San Francisco and is currently scheduled to conclude on Dec. 3 in Newcastle. The U.S. leg will also include stops in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and New York. The U.K. leg will also consist of shows in Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, London, and Wolverhampton.

General sale for the Stairway to the Sky tour will begin on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 10 a.m. local time via the official Zayn website. Presales, including the Zayn VIP Key sale, will begin on Thursday, Sept. 19.

The 11-city run will feature Zayn performing at venues ranging in capacity from around 2,000 to 4,000 as he eases into touring for the first time as a solo artist. The more intimate sizes also match up with the tone of Room Under the Stairs, which functions similarly to a stripped down MTV Unplugged set. In the teasers he posted in the lead up to the announcement, Zayn also spotlighted his earlier releases including “Pillowtalk” and “Dusk Til Dawn.”

“While MTV Unplugged often captured artists at the height of their careers, Room Under the Stairs is a showcase of an artist willingly setting the bar higher to give himself something to yearn for both emotionally and creatively,” Rolling Stone wrote in a review of the album. “Zayn’s simultaneous emergence as a lead songwriter, producer, and — for the first time in nearly a decade — a live performer is a heavy load to place on one record and it doesn’t arrive without its stumbles. But across these 15 songs, he evokes the feeling that those missteps and the spectators making note of them disappear when he closes his eyes and just sings, entirely unplugged.”

Zayn Stairway to the Sky 2024 Tour Dates
Oct. 23 — San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
Oct. 25 — Las Vegas, CA @ The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
Oct. 27 — Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Expo Hall
Oct. 30 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem
Nov. 2 — New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom
Nov. 20 — Edinburgh, UK @ O2 Academy
Nov. 23 — Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy
Nov. 24 — Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo
Nov. 26 — London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
Nov. 29 — Wolverhampton, UK @ Wolverhampton The Halls
Dec. 3 — Newcastle, UK @ O2 City Hall