Zayn Postpones U.S. Tour Following Death of Liam Payne

Zayn has postponed the launch of his first-ever headlining tour, citing the “heartbreaking loss” of Liam Payne.

On Saturday, Zayn issued a statement via Instagram explaining he had made the decision to postpone the U.S. leg of his solo tour. The shows are being rescheduled to January, with new dates to be announced soon. Tickets will remain valid for next year.

“Love you all and thank you for understanding,” he concluded.

The “Stairway to the Sky” tour, produced by AEG and SJM, included 11 dates in the U.K. and the U.S., with the latter scheduled to begin Oct. 23 in San Francisco. He was set to wrap all dates in the first week of December.

Payne died on Oct. 16 after reportedly falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was 31 years old. Investigators cited his cause of death as “multiple trauma” wounds and “internal and external hemorrhage.” The findings were released by the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office. Additionally, the findings revealed that “a series of substances were seized from the musician’s room that would prove a previous situation of alcohol and drug consumption.”

Payne and Zayn were discovered on “The X Factor” in 2010 alongside bandmates Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan. The five musicians auditioned for the show solo, but were put together to form a band and eventually came in third place in the competition. Afterwards, One Direction was signed to “The X Factor” judge Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment. The band went on to become one of the highest-selling boy bands in history, selling 70 million records worldwide before announcing an indefinite hiatus in 2016.

Zayn is set to perform in support of “Room Under the Stairs,” his long-awaited fourth studio album released earlier this year (and his first on new label Mercury Records). The project was co-produced with Grammy-winner Dave Cobb, with Zayn describing the album as an opportunity “for the listener to get more insight on me personally as a human being — my ambitions, my fears.”

See Zayn’s Instagram story post below.