He was one of the stars of One Direction. Liam Payne died this Wednesday in Buenos Aires (Argentina) “after falling from the third floor of a hotel,” local police said. The British author and composer was 31 years old.
For an entire generation of fans who have acclaimed the boy band over the last decade, this announcement comes as a shock. It was solo that Liam Payne auditioned for the “X Factor” talent show, across the Channel, in 2010, two years after a first unsuccessful attempt. He was then 17 years old and two members of the jury, producer Simon Cowell and singer Nicole Scherzinger, smelled his potential. They asked him to join other candidates who had also come to try their luck alone: Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson… This is how the group One Direction, nicknamed “1D” by fans, was born.
Phenomenal success
If, in the final of the show, the boy band only finished on the third step of the podium, it then enjoyed phenomenal success, mainly with a teenage audience, until its separation in 2016, after been subjected to the exhausting rhythm of international tours.
The five studio albums, carried by hits such as What Makes You Beautiful, Story of My Life or Drag Me Downhave sold more than 70 million copies worldwide. 1D also collected trophies, including seven Brit Awards and as many American Music Awards.
Post-One Direction was more complicated for Liam Payne. If Harry Styles has traced his path with a series of triumphs, he took the time to come back by first releasing an EP in 2018, then, the following year, an album, LP1. The latter, although gold in the United Kingdom and platinum in Canada, did not meet with a massive response elsewhere (it did not do better than 153rd in the French top).
Father of a 7 year old child
2024 was to be the year of his return to the forefront. In the spring, Liam Payne delivered the single Teardropsthe first extract from the new album on which he announced he was working. Last year, he had to postpone his planned tour of Latin America due to a kidney infection.
During his career, Liam Payne was also a regular in the columns of celebrity magazines. Between 2016 and 2018, he was notably in a relationship with singer Cheryl Tweedy, ten years older, with whom he had a son, Bear Grey, now 7 years old. Recently, the artist was in a relationship with the American actress and model Kate Cassidy.
