One Direction’s Liam Payne Dies at 31

Former One Direction singer Liam Payne has died after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, The Associated Press reports. Payne was in Argentina after attending his former bandmate Niall Horan’s concert at the capital’s Movistar Arena. Liam Payne was 31 years old.

Liam James Payne was born in Wolverhampton, England. In 2008, at age 14, he auditioned for the British reality show The X Factor. He famously returned to the show in 2010 and was put together with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik to form One Direction. The band did not win the competition, but it did not stop the quintet from becoming a global sensation.

After The X Factor, Simon Cowell signed One Direction to his Syco label, and the group debuted, in September 2011, with the single “What Makes You Beautiful.” Discussing the song, Payne said, “We always wanted it to be something that people didn’t expect and then when we heard it, it wasn’t what we expected either so it kind of fitted perfectly.”

“What Makes You Beautiful” was included on One Direction’s chart-topping debut album, Up All Night, which was released in the United States via Columbia Records. Payne was credited as a co-writer on three of the album’s tracks, “Taken,” “Everything About You,” and “Same Mistakes.”

After Up All Night came the 2012 album Take Me Home, whose biggest song was “Little Things,” co-written by Ed Sheeran. One Direction released three more studio albums—Midnight Memories, Four, and Made in the A.M.—before disbanding in 2016 as the members pursued solo projects.

Payne released his debut solo single, “Strip That Down,” in May 2017. The track, featuring Migos rapper Quavo, was included on the lone solo studio album of Payne’s lifetime, December 2019’s LP1. Payne’s output slowed after LP1, but he returned, in March, with the Capitol Records single “Teardrops.” Payne wrote the song with Jamie Scott and *NSync’s JC Chasez, and he said, upon its release, “‘Teardrops’ is about the vulnerability of heartbreak and the challenge of overcoming those moments. This song marks the start of a new beginning, there’s lots more to come in 2024.”