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The name of the former member of the band One Direction, Liam Payne, topped the list after news spread of his death today at the age of 31, as a result of his fall from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in the Palermo neighborhood in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires.
Who is Liam Payne, the singer and composer who lived a life story that he could not 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 focusing on my studies, but I’m thinking about singing a lot,” he said before his first audition, with a Wolverhampton accent and thick bangs. “It’s a dream, and I’d like to make it happen.”
The teenager impressed the judges during his performance of “Fly Me to the Moon”, and he also showed a playful side when he gave a wink mid-song to Girls Aloud star Cheryl.
But Simon Cowell wasn’t completely convinced he was ready yet, so he advised him to complete 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 intended.
He received great admiration from Simon Cowell when the latter noticed the development and maturity in Liam’s new character.
The judges faced a difficult decision that year, and during a discussion about who would continue on the program, they decided that they could keep five participants by putting them in one group.
Liam, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Harry Styles were informed that they were now a boy band, and One Direction was born.
They didn’t actually win The X Factor that year, as they finished third behind Matt Cardle and Rebecca Ferguson in a final watched by 17 million people.
But Simon Cowell knew talent when he saw it. He signed them to his company, and after waiting nine months to release their first song, they quickly outstripped their competitors.
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That single, What Makes You Beautiful, an instant pop classic, reached number one – the first of four songs to top the UK charts over the next four years.
The sudden fame was unbearable, and Liam said on BBC Radio 1 in 2020 that he was “really nervous about a lot of things that were going on” at the time.
He described the scene by saying, “It was difficult to have fun sometimes in those circumstances, as there was a lot of pressure on him.”
But after about a year, he learned to relax: “The more we have fun, the more successful we are.”
One Direction has inspired pop obsessives, theaters are packed with teenage fans, thousands are camping outside their hotels, and 70 million records have been sold.
He told the BBC in 2019: “I was very confused by fame, and it was difficult to be someone outside your job, but now I feel like I get it. I’m a lucky boy.”
Over time, Liam discovered his talent for songwriting alongside singing, as he co-wrote half of the songs on the band’s last two albums, including songs such as “History”, “Steal My Girl” and “Story”. “Story Of My Life”.
But tensions in the band began to emerge as pressure returned.
In 2022, Liam said on Logan Paul’s podcast that things almost got to the point of a physical altercation. “There was one moment where there was an argument backstage, and one member in particular pushed me against the wall,” he said, without saying who pushed him. .
It became clear that One Direction’s end was imminent, and he added, “Every show was like a gamble, and I was gradually losing control.”
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Liam turned to alcohol, and continued to drink after the band announced their hiatus in 2016.
“My behavior was very erratic, I was drinking excessively,” he told the BBC.
In the post-One Direction world, Liam began his solo career. His first single, “Strip That Down,” a collaboration with American rapper Quavo, reached number three and was nominated for two Brit Awards. He collaborated with Rita Ora on the song “For You.” From the soundtrack to the film “Fifty Shades Freed”, the work reached number eight and received another Brit Award nomination.
Eight years after he flirted with British singer Cheryl Cole when he was 14 years old when he auditioned for the X Factor program, they began a relationship and had their son Bear in 2017, but they separated in 2018.
He then got engaged to model Maya Henry in 2020, but they later broke off the engagement, and earlier this month, she said on social media that the singer had recently sent her repeated unwanted messages.
After their relationship ended, Liam was linked to American influencer Kate Cassidy since 2022.
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In a video he posted on his YouTube account that same year, he said he had spent time in rehab and talked about his efforts to quit drinking: “I’ve become someone I no longer recognize, and I’m sure you don’t recognize me either.”
His solo career has had difficulty maintaining its momentum.
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 more than he could have imagined in his earliest teenage dreams.
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