One Direction here next year

To borrow the title of the group's debut album, the excitement is keeping them, well, up all night.

The long wait for Singapore fans of boy band One Direction (1D) is finally over.

The lads of the massively popular English-Irish group will perform for the first time here on March 11 next year at the new 55,000-seat National Stadium within the Sports Hub.

As an indication of how popular the boys are, tickets, priced from $88 to $388, will go on sale on June 11, a full nine months before the actual concert. Standing tickets are priced at $168.

In comparison, most concert tickets go on sale about four months before a show.

Local Directioners, as fans of the boy band are called, told The New Paper that the chance to finally see Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Liam Payne in the flesh is a "dream come true".

The boys have yet to travel to this part of the world - with die-hard fans having to fly to Australia, or even the US, to watch them on their previous tours.

But all that will change with their 2015 On the Road Again tour, which will see the group performing in Asia, Australia and South Africa.

Singapore aside, the quintet's other Asian stops will be Japan (Osaka and Tokyo), Thailand (Bangkok), Hong Kong, the Philippines (Manila), Indonesia (Jakarta) and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, between February and April next year.

Former radio personality Gerald Koh, 29, said fans can expect at least a two-hour show jam-packed with hits from their albums, including Midnight Memories (2013), Take Me Home (2012) and Up All Night (2011).

Koh, who had accompanied One Direction fans to their concerts in New York, US, and Sydney, Australia, in 2012 when he was a Hot FM91.3 deejay, said: "Anything can happen, but one thing is for sure - they love interacting with fans.

"In Sydney, they had asked fans to tweet prior to the show and they flashed their tweets on the screen during the concert."

MEDLEY OF COVERS

Koh said that One Direction might perform a medley of covers too. He recalled them singing Teenage Dirtbag by US rock group Wheatus in one of the shows he attended.

Student Tiffany Natasha de Conceicao, 19, said: "I was on the verge of crying when I found out. I've been waiting for four years since they were on (reality singing competition) The X Factor."

Miss de Conceicao will be sleeping over at a friend's place the day before tickets go on sale.

"We will wait in front of our laptops and by the telephone to make sure we secure tickets," she said.

She was lucky enough to be the sole Singaporean representative to speak with her idols via video chat during 1D Day last year.

The event was a seven-hour live-streaming show where fans from all over the world could interact with band members.

Student Alison Chiak, 17, was equally excited and is already planning to "stalk" her favourite boys.

She is used to this, having waited 12 hours once for American Idol 8 runner-up Adam Lambert, and skipping meals just to track down Justin Bieber, when they were here last year.

She might have failed to catch glimpses of both, but is hoping for better luck with One Direction.

She is going to track them on Twitter to keep updated on the boys' whereabouts and maybe find them at their hotel or wait for them when they arrive at the airport.

On show day, Alison wants to reach the venue early even though she is planning to buy the tickets priced at $388.

"If I do not have school on that day, I will wait the whole day at the venue, maybe as early at 7am. I'll probably be carrying a really bright poster," she said.

WHEN: One Direction On The Road Again tour 2015 live in Singapore

WHEN: March 11, 2015

WHERE: National Stadium​

TICKETS: $88, $128, $148, $168, $188, $198 and $388 from www.sportshubtix.sg or call 6333-5000. Tickets available from June 11.