Dubai fans chose Zendaya before the booking was made.

Zendaya on Emirates News

Before Zendaya became one of the most recognised actors of her generation, Emirates News recorded an early chapter in the international strategy around her.

Sheeraz Hasan explains how his team identified audience demand, compared it with Zendaya’s earlier Los Angeles appearance and planned the Dubai Mall event.

A different audience

The presenter begins with the question that matters: why bring two Disney stars—Zendaya Coleman and Bella Thorne—to Dubai?

Sheeraz does not answer with instinct or celebrity status. He answers with public demand.

The team asked local fans who they wanted to see. Social media alerts and audience research kept returning the same names: Zendaya and Bella.

“Ask the fans.”

That instruction turns the booking process around.

Instead of choosing a celebrity and hoping an audience follows, the team first identifies the audience, listens for a repeated signal and then builds the appearance around demonstrated interest.

The Emirates News lower third captures the principle plainly: “Hasan listens to the fans when choosing stars.”

Proof before expansion

Zendaya and Bella had already created signature shakes at Millions of Milkshakes in Los Angeles. Sheeraz describes that appearance as a major success.

Dubai was therefore not an isolated booking. It took a format that had already produced a response in one market and adapted it for another.

That sequence matters: listen, test, prove, then expand.

From Los Angeles to Dubai Mall

By the time of the interview, Zendaya and Bella were already flying from Los Angeles to the UAE.

Sheeraz sets out the activation in practical terms: the stars would create their shakes, meet fans, take photographs and appear at Millions of Milkshakes in Dubai Mall. Tickets were being sold through Virgin Megastore and the venue.

The broadcast gives the activation regional authority before the stars arrive. It tells the audience who is coming, why they were chosen, where the event will happen and how fans can attend.

One chapter in a larger partnership

This Dubai appearance is one visible chapter in the longer relationship between Sheeraz, Zendaya and her father and manager, Kazembe Coleman.

Kazembe later described how Sheeraz helped the team build international visibility through Dubai, China and London while major brands and magazines in the United States were still saying no.

Emirates News captures that strategy in motion: an audience signal in the Middle East becomes a real booking, a ticketed public event and regional television coverage.