Liam Payne, former One Direction member, dies at 31 after balcony fall in Argentina
Former One Direction singer Liam Payne, one-fifth of the British boy band, died outside a hotel in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, local police confirmed Wednesday. He was 31.
The English musician was found dead after falling from his third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur hotel. In a statement, the capital police added they were called to the hotel in the capital's Palermo neighborhood where they were notified of an "aggressive man who could be under the effects of drugs and alcohol."
Buenos Aires police said Payne's fall resulted in "extremely serious injuries," and he was confirmed to be dead at the scene, reports The Associated Press. Alberto Crescenti, head of Buenos Aires' public emergency medical services, confirmed Payne's death in a statement to local media, per Todo Noticias and La Nacion.
USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Payne and Casa Sur hotel, as well as the city of Buenos Aires, for comment.
Earlier Wednesday, Payne appeared to post on Snapchat about his trip in Argentina, talking about riding horses, playing polo, and looking forward to returning home to see his dog. "It's a lovely day here in Argentina," he said in the video.
Payne is survived by his 7-year-old child, Bear, whom he shared with British singer Cheryl Cole; his parents, Karen and Geoff Payne; and his sisters, Ruth and Nicola.
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Liam Payne's rise to fame with One Direction
Payne earned global fame as part of the since-disbanded pop group One Direction, alongside Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson.
Payne auditioned twice for the U.K. reality program "The X-Factor" before being launched into superstardom. He advanced after auditioning in 2008 and 2010 and was cut both times. However, in 2010, he was saved from elimination when Simon Cowell, Nicole Scherzinger and Louis Walsh folded him into a band with fellow teen solo artists Styles, Horan, Tomlinson and Malik.
After their first single "What Makes You Beautiful" became a worldwide hit, the group – who placed third on "X Factor" – released their debut album "Up All Night." As they released four more records, they sold out arenas and stadiums around the world during the four headlining tours and scored Top 10 hits including "Story of My Life," which Payne co-wrote, "Best Song Ever" and "Drag Me Down."
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The band took an indefinite hiatus in 2016 following the release of their fifth album, "Made in the A.M." All members, including Malik, who left the group in March 2015, went on to pursue solo careers.
"It is definitely really sad for us. But obviously, we're going back into it. So it's not goodbye; it's just, 'See you later,'" Payne told USA TODAY in 2015 about their hiatus. "It's like what Tigger used to say: 'Ta-ta for now.'"
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Payne, whose music was inspired by R&B, electronic and dance music, released several hit singles following the hiatus and dropped his first solo album, "LP1," in December 2019. His 2017 track with Quavo, "Strip That Down," entered the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. His other hits included the Rita Ora duet "For You," which appeared on the "Fifty Shades Freed" soundtrack, and the Zedd collaboration "Get Low."
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Ahead of the release of his long-awaited debut solo album, Payne told USA TODAY at the time that it felt "really great" to finally put it out into the world.
"It took a long time to finish off – not because it was hard to make, but we were having so much luck with the singles that we didn't need to focus on making the album at that moment in time," Payne said. "I was just kind of finding myself and finding my sound. And also in the band, we made albums really quickly: like two weeks' worth of writing and then a month of recording. So I wanted to enjoy this experience a bit more."
His latest release, a single titled "Teardrops," revealed lyrics about feeling "broken" amid a heartbreak.
In August, Payne was announced as one of the judges of an upcoming music competition show called "Making the Band" on Netflix. Filming was expected to take place over the summer with Scherzinger, Kelly Rowland and AJ McLean. Earlier this month, fans at Horan's tour stop in Buenos Aires shared videos of Payne dancing inside a box suite at Movistar Arena.
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In recent years, Payne spoke candidly about struggling with addiction and the mental health struggles he experienced during the peak of 1D's fame.
"It was just a case of growing up, really," Payne told USA TODAY about the turning point that led to his sobriety journey. "Luckily for me at those times, I had the best people around me to make me realize different points in my life where I could be better. And obviously, having kids completely changes the mindset around everything you do. I'm still quite young – I'd like to think so at least – so I still have a lot of learning left to go. I'm still very much finding myself as a person."
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He shared that therapy helped him find a healthy relationship with alcohol.
"I was helped to get sober by a (therapist) named Chip Somers, who also got Russell Brand through sobriety. I actually went to a meeting with Russell, where you recount stories and talk about different situations," Payne told USA TODAY. "It's nice finding people who are going through the same (expletive) as you are."
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In a July 2023 video marking his return to YouTube, the singer shared that he'd realized he "became somebody who I didn't really recognize anymore."
"I had to kind of go away to kind of get better, let's say," he shared. "The whole thing got to that point of where it was just to kind of scramble to stay relevant."
Payne added, "That was the most important bit, was going back to the root of it to find out why it is I like doing this, why I like making music for you guys. Who am I? What do I actually want to say to you? You know, it's a really privileged position that I'm in right now. And I actually want to make use of it."
He revealed that he'd gone to a "wonderful place" in Louisiana for nearly 100 days to "kind of go and get my head straight." Payne also shared at the time that he hadn't consumed alcohol in nearly six months.
Payne described himself as being "a little bit scared" to tour again because "I haven't road tested (performing) in this new frame of mind and not having anything to lean on does sound quite daunting." In August 2023, he was forced to cancel six shows in Mexico and South America after being hospitalized for a kidney infection.
In the video, Payne also apologized for "cringe" comments he made on a podcast in 2022 that disparaged his former bandmates, calling his statements "a scramble to stay relevant." "The rest of the boys really stuck by me when I needed them most; they kinda came to the rescue. Even Zayn as well," he added.
In a 2021 interview with "The Diary of a CEO" podcast, Payne opened up about the fact that he "didn't like myself very much" during his early boy band days, which he said were filled with "pills and booze" and "moments of suicidal ideation."
"The day the band ended, I was like, 'Thank the Lord,'" he said. "I know a lot of people are going to be mad at me for saying that, but I needed to stop or it would kill me."
"In the band... the best way to secure us because of how big we’d got, was just to lock us in our rooms. What’s in the room? A mini-bar," he said on the podcast. "So at a certain point, I thought, I’m just going to have a party-for-one and that seemed to carry on for many years of my life.
"There were points where it was toxic and difficult. Don't get me wrong; we had the best time ever, but… you don't realize you have a choice at that point."
Fans gather to mourn One Direction star
Reuters reporters at the scene in Argentina saw crowds gathering outside the hotel, where dozens of police and emergency services teams had cordoned off an area as night fell on the city.
One 25-year-old fan, Yamila Zacarias, said her family had made a lot of effort so she could see One Direction when they came to Argentina, but she had decided not to go as her parents didn't have much money then.
"He meant a lot to me because the band came into my life at this time when you're trying to be a part of something, and being a One Direction fan became that something for me," she said. "This was the only time I could applaud him."
Violeta Antier, another fan, told Reuters she had come straight away after her sister told her Payne had died.
"I saw him two weeks ago at a Niall (Horan) concert, another One Direction member. He was there, I saw him," she said.
"He was OK."
Payne had attended Horan's Oct. 2 Buenos Aires concert on the Latin American tour leg that spanned Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Colombia. The two had posted videos together and with fans.
This story was updated to add new information.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use disorders, you can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). The service is free, confidential and available in English and Spanish.
Contributing: Fernando Cervantes, Cydney Henderson and Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY; Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Liam Payne dead: One Direction member singer dies in fall at 31