Three acts with proven drawing power, Ke$ha, Charlie Puth and Fall Out Boy, will top off the KDWB Jingle Ball concert at Xcel Energy Center on Dec. 4, but the real gift for Twin Cities pop fans might be the local solo debuts by two members of One Direction.
Niall Horan and Liam Payne from the British boy band will each perform on the annual holiday fete, announced today by its host station with tickets on sale via Ticketmaster and the arena box office starting at noon next Monday, Oct. 16, priced $39-$159. The show is once again part of a chain of similar iHeartRadio holiday concerts around the country, and the corporate radio brass always seem to relegate the Twin Cities date to a school night -- Monday in this case.
Horan has already announced a Minnesota State Fair date on his 2018 tour, and Payne can be expected in town next year, too. So this Jingle Ball gig will serve as something of an audition in front of Twin Cities fans, who also already have One Direction's biggest breakout star Harry Styles coming to town next summer.
Fall Out Boy actually has its own concert coming up much sooner: Oct. 22 at Xcel Center, an odd double-booking, but the middle-aged "punk" band can't seem to get enough of playing to young pop crowds. Ke$ha and Puth have alredy played to big crowds in town over the past year, the former at the U of M homecoming concert at TCF Bank Stadium last October and the latter at Xcel Center in August opening for Shawn Mendes.
Other performers on the KDWB Jingle Ball 2017 lineup will include a singer from last year's Jingle Ball headlining act Fifth Harmony, Camila Cabello, plus Iowa native Julia Michaels and fledgling boy band Why Don't We.