Zayn Malik honours Liam Payne at Stairway to the Sky Tour: ‘I’m a mess’

Zayn Malik kicked off his first ever solo tour with an emotional tribute to his late One Direction bandmate, Liam Payne.

Following his second-to-last song at the show, held on November 23rd in Leads, the singer surprised fans with an unexpected message.

As the background screen turned blue, it projected the message, “Liam Payne, 1993-2024, Love you bro,” alongside a heart emoji, as Stardust played in the background.

The Dusk till Dawn singer's heartfelt gesture left Directioners in tears, as few took to X (formerly, Twitter) to express their sentiments.

“Zayns tribute to Liam tonight, broke everyones hearts [heartbreak emoji] #ZaynSTTSTour #STTSTourLeeds #ZaynLeeds #STTSTour,” wrote one.

Another echoed, “This is one of the tributes that has hurt me the most, when I saw the screen and heard Stardust in the background, my heart broke into thousand little pieces, this shouldn’t be happening, not like this, not now (heartbreak and dove emoji).”

"Stardust playing and the fans crying in the background. I’m a mess," penned another.

The 31-year-old singer’s tribute comes three days after he attended Payne’s funeral alongside his former bandmates, Louis Tomlinson , Niall Horan and Harry Styles.

The appearance also marked One Direction's public reunion after it was disbanded in 2016.

Before Payne’s untimely death, Malik had announced tour dates for Stairway to the Sky Tour initially set for October 23rd. However, he rescheduled the dates following Payne’s tragic passing.

After Leads, Malik will head to Manchester on November 24th, following numerous performances in various cities of UK before heading to United States in January 2025.

Payne died on October 16th after falling balcony and receiving multiple fatal internal and external injuries falling balcony at CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.