Liam Payne, the singer and songwriter who drew international fame as a member of British boy band One Direction, died on Wednesday at the age of 31 after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The circumstances of Payne‘s fall have not yet been confirmed, but an outpouring of grief from fellow celebrities and fans alike has already met the news of his passing on social media.
Payne, who was born in Wolverhampton, England, got his start as a singer on the British reality music competition show The X Factor in 2008, at the age of 16. After initially being eliminated from the show, he returned to re-audition in 2010 and ended up forming One Direction—one of the top-selling boy bands of all time—alongside former bandmates Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik.
While One Direction’s officially dissolution in 2016 broke the hearts of teenage superfans (and more than a few adults) around the world, Payne had allegedly remained close with Horan and Styles in the years preceding his untimely death. “I did speak to Harry, and it was really lovely,” Payne recalled on an Instagram Live in 2022. “He called me because he has a sixth sense for if I’m struggling or if one of us is in trouble, I feel like. I spoke to him, and it was a really lovely catchup, actually. And I’ve got a lot of love for the man. He’s great, he’s really, really great.” Payne is survived by his parents and his two older sisters.
