Liam Payne dies at 31 after fall from Argentina hotel balcony: Singer Liam Payne, a former member of the British boy band One Direction fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, AP reported citing local officials.
In an official statement, the Buenos Aires police said that Payne fell from the third floor of the Casa Sur Hotel in Palermo neighborhood of the capital city. They added that the fall resulted in “extremely serious injuries” and death on the spot, according to medics, the report said.
Payne is survived by his son Bear Grey Payne (7), parents Geoff and Karen Payne, and his two older sisters, Ruth and Nicola. He had Bear with former girlfriend, former X-Factor judge and singer Cheryl Cole. He was previously engaged to Maya Henry between 2020-22.
Born on August 29, 1993, Payne a former member of the five piece boy band One Direction also known as 1D.
At 16 years, he auditioned for ‘The X factor’, a British singing competition in 2010, with Michael Bublé’s version of ‘Cry Me a River’ and receiving cheers and applause from the audience, as per the report. Him and fellow 1D members failed to make it through the competition as solo acts and were clubbed as a group by X Factor judges including Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger.
Though Payne, and members Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik lost the competition, they went on to gain worldwide fame, fortune and fan following dubbed as ‘Directioners’.
Payne had been on The X Factor twice before striking gold, as per an AFP report.
From Wolverhampton in England, Payne while part of the band has the “responsible one” persona, the AP report added.
Among 1D's popular songs included ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, ‘Night Changes’ and ‘Story of My Life’. Payne co-wrote many of the band's hit songs.
Commenting on the fame and fan following, Payne in an interview with AP in 2013 said it took him some time to adjust as a public figure. “I don’t think you can ever deal with that, it’s all a bit crazy for us to see that people get in that sort of state of mind about us and what we do,” he said.
Payne has recently been open his about struggle with alcoholism and in a 2023 video posted on YouTube account shared that he went to rehab to help with the problem. “I kind of became somebody who I didn't really recognize anymore. And I'm sure you guys didn't either,” he stated, as per AFP.
1D broke up in 2016 and Payne, like other members, embarked on a solo career. This phase was marked by a shift from the band's pop and romance songs to more EDM and hip-hop music.
His 2017 single ‘Strip That Down ft Quavo’, in the Uk it peaked at number three on the charts, and reached the Billboard Top 10 on which chart it stayed for months, as per the AP and AFP reports. He has another album in 2019 titled ‘LP1’, with his last release being in March 2024 — a single called ‘Teardrops’.
Payne's solo career and as part 1D earned him a net worth of around $70 million, according to close to Celebrity Net Worth, Reuters reported. It added that One Direction was ranked the third greatest boy band of all time by Entertainment Weekly in 2024.
(With inputs from AP, AFP and Reuters),
