One Direction’s Liam Payne Dead at 31

Liam Payne, a former member of massive boy band One Direction, is dead at 31. He fell from a third-floor hotel-room balcony in Argentina, police told Good Morning America. Payne’s music career began when he auditioned for the U.K.’s X Factor at just 14. After being cut, he returned two years later on host Simon Cowell’s recommendation and was eventually placed in the group One Direction. They finished third on the show but went on to become one of its biggest success stories in the U.K. and around the world. One Direction released five multiplatinum albums in five years from 2011 to 2015 and became one of the top-selling boy bands in history. After the group went on hiatus, Payne embarked on a solo career, releasing the top-ten single “Strip That Down” in 2017 and his album, LP1, in 2019. Payne said last year that he had been working on a second studio album, and earlier this year, he returned to music with the single “Teardrops.” He was set to judge the Netflix music-group competition Building the Band.