Background and career
Liam James Payne (29 August 1993 – 16 October 2024) was an English singer and songwriter. He was a member of the pop band One Direction, one of the best-selling boy bands of all time, alongside Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson. Payne twice auditioned as a solo artist on the British television series The X Factor in 2008 and 2010; in the latter, he was invited to join One Direction alongside fellow contestants, placing third and later achieving global success. Whilst in One Direction, Payne co-wrote a number of songs with Louis Tomlinson. Following the band's hiatus in 2016, Payne pursued a solo career, signing with Capitol and Republic Records. In 2017, he released his debut solo single "Strip That Down", which reached number three on the UK singles chart and number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song received multi-platinum certifications in both countries. The following year, he released "For You", a collaboration with Rita Ora which became a hit worldwide and received gold or platinum certifications in several countries. His debut and sole solo album, LP1, was released in December 2019. During the first three years of his solo career, Payne sold over 18 million singles, 2.4 million albums, and amassed 3.9 billion streams. In addition to his solo work, Payne produced remixes under the pseudonyms Big Payno and Payno, remixing tracks for singer Cheryl. Payne was a brand ambassador for Hugo Boss, appeared in television shows, and raised money for UNICEF, health, and food security causes. Payne struggled with substance abuse and mental illness throughout his career. On 16 October 2024, he died at the age of 31 after falling from a third-floor balcony at a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, while intoxicated with multiple substances. The cause of his death was later confirmed as polytrauma. In response to Payne’s death, the music industry and media were scrutinised, and concerns were raised about the impact of fame on adolescents. Following his death, Payne's track "Teardrops" entered the UK singles chart, alongside all five One Direction albums.
Liam James Payne was born in Wolverhampton on 29 August 1993, the son of infant nurse Karen Payne and fitter Geoff Payne. He had two older sisters named Nicola and Ruth. He grew up in Bushbury. Payne was born three weeks premature and suffered frequent illnesses. Until the age of four, he had regular tests done in hospital as doctors noticed one of his kidneys was scarred and dysfunctional. In the book Dare to Dream: Life as One Direction, he mentioned that before he was four, "I had to have 32 injections in my arm in the morning and evening to try and make me better." As a student, Payne was heavily involved in sports, particularly running. Payne joined the Wolverhampton & Bilston Athletics Club to pursue his running career. He originally planned to work in an aircraft fitting factory, like his father. He began taking boxing lessons at the age of 12 amidst bullying from older students in secondary school. Payne completed 11 GCSEs at St Peter's Collegiate School (now St Peter's Collegiate Academy) before moving on to study music technology at City of Wolverhampton College. Payne was introduced to the world of show business at the age of 12, as a member of the Pink Productions Theatre Company, appearing as Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever. Payne had previously performed in front of a crowd of over 29,000 people during a Wolverhampton Wanderers football match.
Payne auditioned for the fifth series of The X Factor in 2008, at 14 years old, in front of judges Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole, Dannii Minogue and Louis Walsh. Payne moved past the first round after performing Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon". He was cut at the boot camp stage, but Cowell then changed his mind and asked Payne to return for the judges' houses stage. Payne was cut again during judges' houses, but was encouraged by Cowell to "come back in two years". Payne returned to the show in 2010 for the seventh series, auditioning in front of Cowell, Cole, Walsh and guest judge Natalie Imbruglia. He sang the Michael Bublé version of "Cry Me a River". He advanced but did not progress to the "Boys" category at judges' houses. During the boot camp stage of the competition, Payne, along with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik, were put together to form a five-piece boy band called One Direction, to compete in the "Groups" category. The group became the last contestant eliminated from the show. In January 2011, One Direction were signed to Simon Cowell's Syco Entertainment. Their UK number one debut single, "What Makes You Beautiful", and their debut studio album, Up All Night, were released later that year. The album, which contained three songs co-written by Payne, debuted at number one in the United States. All of their next four studio albums—Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013), Four (2014) and Made in the A.M. (2015)—debuted at number one in the UK. Midnight Memories was the world's best-selling album of 2013, and its accompanying Where We Are Tour was the highest-grossing tour of 2014. After the release of Four, One Direction became the only group in the 58-year history of the Billboard 200 albums chart to have their first four albums debut at number one. The albums spawned a string of successful singles, including "Live While We're Young", "Little Things", "Best Song Ever", "Story of My Life", "Drag Me Down" and "History". Following the departure of Zayn Malik in March 2015, Payne was tasked with taking over the bulk of Malik's vocals. Payne was credited for co-writing around half of the songs on One Direction's third album, and had a production credit on Made in the A.M.. Payne and Tomlinson were the band's highest-earning members. In August 2013, Payne recorded a dance track with Miguel. In 2014, Payne began working as a producer under the monikers "Big Payno" or "Payno", teaming up with fellow producers AfterHrs to remix several tracks including Cheryl Cole's "I Don't Care" in 2014. Payne was also credited with co-writing Cole's "I Won't Break", from her album Only Human. In August 2014, Payne created and became director of Hampton Music Limited, a publishing company under which his solo projects appeared. Payne served as one of the directors for the production company One Mode Productions Limited. In 2015, Payne co-wrote the Irish band Hometown's single "The Night We Met". One Direction went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016, after completing promotional activities related to Made in the A.M. Since their debut, One Direction have sold 70 million records worldwide, including 7.6 million albums and 26 million singles in the US, becoming one of the best-selling boy bands of all time. The group amassed numerous accolades, including seven Brit Awards, seven American Music Awards, six Billboard Music Awards, and four MTV Video Music Awards.
In 2015, Payne began working with Juicy J. In early 2016, Payne featured on a track titled "You" by Wiz Khalifa and Juicy J; the track was a leak from an unreleased mixtape. In July 2016, Payne announced that he had signed a recording contract with Capitol Records. The following October, he signed a contract with Republic Records. His debut solo single Strip That Down, featuring Quavo and co-written with Ed Sheeran and Steve Mac, was released on 19 May 2017. The song was a commercial success, reaching number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number three on the UK Singles Chart. "Strip That Down" was certified double platinum in the United Kingdom and 3× platinum in the United States. Payne followed up this release with two UK top 30 singles: "Get Low", a collaboration with Zedd which was certified silver, and "Bedroom Floor", which was certified gold. In June 2017, Payne contributed to a charity single supporting those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire. In January 2018, Payne collaborated with Rita Ora on "For You", released as a single from the soundtrack of the film Fifty Shades Freed. The song was a commercial success worldwide, peaking within the top ten of several countries. "For You" was certified diamond in Brazil, platinum in the United Kingdom, and received gold or platinum certifications in thirteen further countries. In April 2018, Payne released "Familiar" with J Balvin, which peaked at number 14 in the United Kingdom and was certified platinum. On 30 March 2018, Payne performed in front of more than 100,000 people during a free concert at Global Village 2018 in Dubai. Payne initially announced that his debut album would be released on 14 September 2018, but he delayed the release to continue work on it, stating that some of its songs "felt from another age". Instead, he released his first extended play, First Time, on 24 August 2018. The EP's sole single was "First Time", a collaboration with French Montana. He collaborated with Jonas Blue and Lennon Stella on the single "Polaroid", released on 5 October 2018. The single peaked at number 12 in the United Kingdom and was certified platinum. During the first three years of his solo career, Payne sold over 18 million singles, 2.4 million albums, and amassed 3.9 billion streams.
Payne released the song "Stack It Up", featuring American rapper A Boogie wit da Hoodie, on 18 September 2019. In October 2019, Payne announced that his debut album, LP1, would be released on 6 December 2019. Several of Payne's previous single releases were included on the album's track list, and Payne released "All I Want (For Christmas)" on 25 October as the sixth single from the album. LP1 debuted at number 17 on the UK Albums Chart and number 111 on the Billboard 200. The album was certified gold in the United Kingdom and platinum in Canada. In April 2020, Payne began a weekly YouTube series. In July, he announced he would be launching The LP Show, a livestream series, with "Act 1" being a live-streamed concert. On 9 October 2020, Payne released Midnight Hour, a collaborative EP with producer Alesso. It was preceded by the single "Midnight", released that April. On 30 October 2020, Payne released "Naughty List", a Christmas single featuring Dixie D'Amelio. In August 2021, Payne released the single "Sunshine", which was featured in the film Ron's Gone Wrong. In May 2023, Payne announced that he was working on his second album. He planned his first solo tour, with dates for Latin America scheduled to take place in September 2023, but the tour was postponed after Payne was hospitalised in August 2023 with a kidney infection. Payne returned to music with the single "Teardrops", which was released on 1 March 2024. The single was co-written with NSYNC member JC Chasez. "Teardrops" did not chart upon release, but debuted at number 85 on the UK Singles Chart following Payne's death in October 2024. On 28 October 2024, American musician Sam Pounds announced that Payne would be the featured artist on his single "Do No Wrong", to be released on 1 November 2024. However, a day later, he delayed the single, as he felt that it was not yet time.
On One Direction's later three albums, especially Four, Payne became a "prolific co-writer" with over 30 credits total, second only to Louis Tomlinson, with whom he frequently collaborated. Where Tomlinson was known for his lyricism, Payne had a penchant for coming up with melodies. He told Entertainment Weekly in 2015 that the two tracks he was most proud of were "Better Than Words" and "What a Feeling". The former is composed of titles from other songs, while he and Tomlinson wrote the latter inspired by Fleetwood Mac. Payne was a pop and R&B singer. He cited Chris Brown, Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake, and Usher as being major musical influences. Payne said, "The person who has inspired me most is Pharrell Williams who I worked with a while back. I got talking to his producer recently and asked him what Pharrell was like when he was younger, and he said to me that when he was my age he couldn't press a note on a keyboard. And that was amazing to me because at 22 I thought I was too old to learn guitar." His first exposure to rock music was through Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory with "In the End", as they were the gateway for him to listen to other types of music outside of what he would typically listen to as a child. Payne would label "In the End" as one of the most important songs of his life. Payne often sang falsetto.
