More than a decade after he left the boy band One Direction at the height of their success, Zayn Malik — who goes by his first name — will make his Minnesota live debut when he headlines St. Paul’s Grand Casino Arena on July 24.

Zayn, formerly of One Direction, will play Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul on July 24, 2026. (Courtesy of Nabil Elderkin)

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Feb. 13 through Ticketmaster. Fans who register at inzayn.com by 11 p.m. Sunday have access to a presale.

Born in England to an immigrant Pakistani father and white mother of British and Irish descent, Zayn wrote rap music as a teen, spent two years boxing and planned to pursue a degree in English in hopes of becoming a teacher.

But when he was 17, he auditioned for “The X Factor” and was convinced by judges Nicole Scherzinger and Simon Cowell to join forces with fellow contestants Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson to form One Direction. The group went on to find worldwide success and, locally, headlined Target Center in 2013 and the former TCF Bank Stadium two years later.

Zayn announced he was leaving the group in March 2015 and, later that year, said in several interviews he was unhappy with the direction his bandmates were going. One Direction put out one final album and played their final televised performance on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” at the end of that year.

Both his debut single “Pillowtalk” and album “Mind of Mine” topped the Billboard charts, but interest in Zayn soon cooled, at least in the States. His only other Top 10 single in this country was 2016’s “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever,” a duet with Taylor Swift.

In the years since, Zayn has continued to release new music, but didn’t get serious about touring until late 2024, when he played a series of shows in the U.K. followed by a six-city North American tour in early 2025. Last month, he played a Las Vegas residency followed by the announcement of his fifth album “Konnakol,” which is due out April 17.

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