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The name of the former member of the band One Direction, Liam Payne, was at the top of the list after news broke of his death today at the age of 31, as a result of a fall from the third floor balcony of a hotel in the Palermo area of the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires.
Who is Liam Payne, the singer and songwriter who lived a life story he could never have imagined in his teenage dreams?
Liam Payne made his first appearance in the world of pop when he was 14 years old, through his first experience on The X Factor in 2008.
“I’m supposed to be concentrating on my studies, but I think about singing a lot,” he said before his first audition, with a Wolverhampton accent and thick bangs it happens.”
The teenager impressed the judges with his rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon”, and also showed a playful side when he gave Girls Aloud star Cheryl a mean wink.
But Simon Cowell wasn’t quite sure he was ready yet, so he advised him to finish his high school diploma and come back in two years.
When Liam returned to the show again in 2010, performing another classic, “Cry Me A River,” he delivered as expected.
He received high praise from Simon Cowell when the latter noticed the development and maturity in Liam’s new character.
The judges had a difficult decision to make that year, and when they were discussing who would continue on the program, they decided that they could keep five participants by putting them on the same group.
Liam, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Harry Styles were told they were now a boy band, and One Direction was born.
They did not win the X Factor that year, finishing third behind Matt Cardle and Rebecca Ferguson in a final watched by 17 million people.
But Simon Cowell knew talent when he saw it.
Comment on the picture, Liam (centre) Neil Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik (left to right)
That single, What Makes You Beautiful, became an instant pop classic, reaching number one – the first of four songs to top the UK charts over the next four years.
The fame was suddenly unbearable, and Liam said on BBC Radio 1 in 2020 that he was “very worried about a lot of things that were going on” at the time.
He described the scene by saying, “It was hard to have fun sometimes in those conditions, because there was a lot of pressure.”
But after about a year, he learned to relax: “The more fun we have, the more successful we are.”
One Direction has inspired pop obsessives, theaters are full of teenage fans, thousands are camping outside their hotels, and 70 million albums have been sold.
He told the BBC in 2019: “I was very confused by fame, and it was difficult to be somebody outside of your work, but now I feel that I am a lucky boy.
Over time, Liam found his talent in songwriting alongside singing, as he co-wrote half of the songs on the band’s last two albums, including songs like “History”, “Steal My Girl” and “Story Of My Life”.
But tensions in the band began to show as pressure returned.
In 2022, Liam said on Logan Paul’s podcast that things almost reached the point of physical violence. who pushed him.
It became clear that the end of One Direction was near, and he said, “Every show was like a game, and I was slowly losing control. “
Comment on the picture, Cheryl and Liam have been together for two years
Liam turned to alcohol, and continued to drink after the band announced their breakup in 2016.
“My behavior was very erratic, I was drinking too much,” he told the BBC.
In the post-One Direction world, Liam began his solo career, “Strip That Down”, a collaboration with American rapper Quavo, reached number three and was nominated for two Brit Collaboration Awards it with Rita Ora on the song “Air do shon.” From the soundtrack to the film “Fifty Shades Freed”, the work reached number eight and received a nomination for a Brit Award.
Eight years after he dated British singer Cheryl Cole when he was 14 when he interviewed for the X Factor programme, they began a relationship and had a son Bear in 2017, but split them in 2018.
He then became engaged to model Maya Henry in 2020, but they later broke up, and earlier this month, she claimed on social media that the singer had sent her a number of unwanted messages. sent to her recently.
After their relationship ended, Liam was linked to American influencer Kate Cassidy from 2022.
Comment on the picture, It was recently announced that the release of his second solo album has been postponed
In a video he posted on his YouTube account the same year, he said he had spent time in rehab and talked about his efforts to stop drinking: “Yes I’ve become someone I don’t recognize anymore, and I’m sure you won’t either. recognize me at all.”
It was difficult to sustain his solo career.
His single “Teardrops”, released in March this year, did not do well on the charts, and there were reports that his second solo album and a documentary about his life had been put on hold.
Liam’s life story was bigger than he could have imagined in his earliest teenage dreams.
