Former One Direction member Liam Payne dies after heavy fall

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British musician Liam Payne, a former member of the boy band One Direction, died on Wednesday at the age of 31 after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, police said, causing deep shock to millions of fans around the world.

“Liam James Payne, songwriter and guitarist, former member of One Direction, died today [ce mercredi 16 octobre 2024, NDLR] after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Palermo,” a district of the Argentine capital, police said in a statement.

Police responded to “a call to 911 (the emergency number) reporting an aggressive man who may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol,” the statement continued.

“I feel like it’s a part of my adolescence that’s been lost”

A few minutes after the announcement of the death of the British singer, many fans and curious people gathered in silence in front of the door of the “Casa Sur” hotel where the death was noted, under the surveillance of a dozen police officers .

“I’m in shock, I can’t believe it. I live five streets away and I thought I had to be there,” Martina Di Lalla, 23, who says she was a One Direction fan when she was a teenager, told AFP.

“I feel like it’s a part of my adolescence that’s been lost,” said Lena Duek, 21, saying the group’s melodies accompanied her from the ages of 12 to 16, and that she hoped One Direction would get back together one day.

Liam Payne was, along with Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Harry Styles, one of the members of the boy band formed in 2010 and which enjoyed dazzling success. The announcement in 2016 of a break in the group’s career, never formalized as a separation, upset millions of fans.

According to the head of emergency, Alberto Crescenti, Liam Payne had “very serious injuries following his fall”. “We noted the death, there was no possibility of resuscitation,” he declared on local television.

He specified that emergency services had been called at 5:04 p.m. local time (8:04 p.m. GMT) and that a medical team had arrived seven minutes later but could only “notice the death of this man” before discovering “later that ‘he was a singer in a band’.
An investigation into the causes of death has been opened.

According to Billboard magazine, Liam Payne attended a concert by ex-One Direction, Niall Horan, in Buenos Aires on October 2.

Alcohol problems

Reactions from personalities began to pour in on social networks.
“So devastated by the news of Liam Payne’s passing. Love and condolences to his family and loved ones. RIP my friend,” wrote former model and singer Paris Hilton on X.

One Direction is a product of the TV show The X Factorwho subsequently became one of the most lucrative boy bands in the world.

The fairly smooth and light pop group released in 2016, like every year since 2011, its fifth and final studio album, Made in the A.M.

The same year, the members of the group, then all around twenty years old, announced that they were taking an indefinite break while ensuring that they wanted to continue. They have never reunited on stage or in the studio since.

He was working on a new album

Liam Payne then announced that he was working on a solo album, following in the footsteps of other band members.

Son single solo, Strip that Downranked third in the UK charts and tenth in the US Billboard Top Songs chart. In December 2019 he released his first solo album LP1.

Born August 29, 1993 in Wolverhampton, Liam Payne is the author of several songs from One Direction’s discography.

In recent years, Liam Payne has openly spoken about his problems with alcoholism and the difficulties associated with fame.

In a 2023 video posted to his YouTube account, he admitted to being admitted to a rehab center for his alcohol addiction: “I kind of became someone I didn’t really recognize anymore. And I’m sure you don’t recognize it either,” he said then.

Last year, he announced that he was working on a second album and had just released a new single in March 2024.

With AFP.

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