Pop singer Liam Payne, who was known for the boy band One Direction, died on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. Payne fell from a third floor balcony at a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The police are investigating the cause of death. He was 31 years old.
Payne was born on August 29, 1993, in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. He auditioned for The X Factor in 2008, but was cut during the early stages of the show. He came back to the show two years later with One Direction bandmates Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson. They had a successful run, placing third in the show.
The group became one of the biggest pop acts of the 2010s, releasing an album per year from 2011 to 2015. The group’s first album, Up All Night, featured their big hit “What Makes You Beautiful.” Payne was credited as a songwriter on the album’s songs, “Taken,” “Everything About You,” and “Same Mistakes.” The album went triple platinum in the US and four times platinum in the United Kingdom.
Their second album, Take Me Home, featured the singles “Live While We’re Young,” “Kiss You,” and “Little Things.” Payne co-wrote the songs “Last First Kiss,” “Back for You,” and “Summer Love.” For their third album, Midnight Memories, Payne wrote the lead single, “Story of My Life,” as well as “Little White Lies” and the title track.
Payne wrote 12 songs on their fourth album, Four, including “Steal My Girl” and “Night Changes.” It was his last album singing with the group, however he did write five songs for their fifth and final album, 2015’s Made in the A.M. In addition to their five albums, the group did four world tours during that period.
In 2017, Payne released his first single, “Strip That Down,” which reached No. 10 on the Billboard charts. He released his first solo album, LP1, in 2019, followed by his EP Midnight Hour a year later. That second offering featured the song “Sunshine,” which was in the animated movie, Ron’s Gone Wrong.
In March 2024, Payne released “Teardrops,” his first new song in three years. He was planning his second solo album and was recently a judge on Netflix’s planned reality series, Building the Band.
