Zayn Malik knows exactly how to promote a new album: by showing up to meet some of his biggest fans at a listening party.
The musician and former One Direction member made his way to a listening party held in London this week and shared the entire experience on Instagram Live. In video footage captured by fan accounts, Zayn can be seen walking into an intimate room of people who are listening to his forthcoming album, Room under The Stairs. The album will be his fourth solo project and is set to be released May 17.
In video footage taken from the event, fans appear to be shocked when the pop superstar walks through the door — with many of them clasping their hands over their mouths. Zayn posted his own recap of the surprise meet-and-greet on Instagram Stories on Friday, saying directly to the camera that he was going to pop in.
“So here we are at my listening party in London and we have some fans in the room listening to the music right now and we're gonna go in there and surprise them,” Zayn said in a video. “They don't know I'm here. Hopefully, we don't freak them out too much.”
The footage then shows Zayn interacting with smiling fans and signing posters for them.
X content
Zayn first premiered his new single off the album, “Love Like This” in July 2023 — which means fans have been eagerly awaiting the rest of his new music in the months since. He made a brief appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday to tease another single off of the album, entitled “What I Am." Zayn posted a handwritten note to his Instagram on Friday that said the single is “the first release of a special project I've been working on for years.”
He also thanked fans for their support on the single, writing “Thank you for all the love and support on ‘What I Am.' Wouldn’t be able to do any of this without you x Z.”
Instagram content
The musician last released music in 2021 with his album, Nobody Is Listening. The new music has been highly anticipated as he has stepped mostly out of the spotlight in recent years. Aside from working on his new music, Zayn has also been working on his voice acting chops in a new animated feature alongside Bridgerton's Simone Ashley called 10 Lives. Zayn will play bad boy twins Cameron and Kirk in the film and worked as executive music producer. The singer wrote songs for the film, including a duet he will sing with Ashley.
