Zayn Malik postpones tour after "heartbreaking loss" of Liam Payne

As the music industry continues to adjust to the impact of the death of former One Direction member Liam Payne, one of Payne’s former bandmates has made one concrete response to the news: Zayn Malik has announced that he’s postponing his U.S. solo tour, which was set to kick off next week.

Writing on Instagram, Malik said that, “Given the heartbreaking loss experienced this week, I’ve made the decision to postpone the U.S. leg of the Stairway To The Sky tour.” Malik announced that the dates will be moved to January, and that already-purchased tickets will remain valid. The tour is Malik’s first as a solo artist, running in support of his 2024 album Room Under The Stairs

Along with the other four remaining One Direction alums, Malik wrote a much longer post about Payne earlier this week, along with the joint statement that he, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, and Harry Styles issued together.

Tributes to Payne have continued to crop up from the musical world this weekend, both on social media, and at venues, as artists who toured with him, collaborated with him, or simply admired his work all expressed their grief at his death. Payne died on October 16, after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina. Reports of his final days remain obscured—many of them arriving in the form of tabloid rumors—but generally pain a picture of a person undergoing some level of personal and professional crisis.