Even after all these years, Zayn still has a certain boy band charm. Beyond the buzz cut and well-groomed beard, there are those big Bambi eyes as he stares out into a sea of fans at Dolby Live at Park MGM on January 20. “I don’t know how I’m here,” he says. “It still feels a bit like a dream for me.”
It’s a fitting sentiment for the launch of Zayn’s first Las Vegas residency, a milestone many assumed his ex-One Direction bandmate Harry Styles would beat him to. But the singer-songwriter always had a knack for taking leaps. Zayn was the first to leave the best-selling U.K. boy band, the first to establish a solo career with R&B, pop and soul at the center.
Night one saw Zayn fully in his element. Backed by a female-led band, the singer wielded his vocals like a well-tuned instrument, wowing the audience with floaty falsettos on “It’s You” and “Lied To” despite just getting over a sinus infection. He also debuted several new songs, including “Die for Me” from his upcoming album, which made the night feel like one big listening party.
Much credit has to go to Zayn’s band, who doubled down on the bluesy soul presented on Room Under the Stairs tracks like “Dreamin” and “Concrete Kisses.” Zayn’s weathered and rustic vocals fit so well into that soundscape, it’s hard to believe this is the same artist who crooned out “Sweat.” Zayn himself has said that Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” inspired the song, and it showed in how the percussion threw the room into orbit. Bathed in soft neons and silhouettes, Zayn seduced the room with his vocal range. We were high off of hazy rhythms, at the mercy of melodies that felt fluid and strangely elemental.
When Zayn finally broke out megahits from his Mind of Mine era, the audience collectively lost its mind. “Drunk” evolved into a room-wide singalong as fans crooned along to the chorus, intoxicated by the energy around them as much as the man who made it happen. Zayn closed the show with his debut single, “Pillowtalk.” The stripped-down arrangement saw him pouring his all into the mic, harmonies swirling under a current of pounding pianos and acoustic guitars. If this residency felt like a dream to Zayn, we were all living in it with him.
ZAYN January 24-25, 28, 30-31, 9 p.m., $43-$136. Dolby Live, ticketmaster.com.
