In the first three years of his solo career, Liam Payne sold more than 18 million singles and 2.4 million albums, and his music pulled in 3.9 billion streams. He died on 16 October 2024, aged 31, after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. The cause of death was later confirmed as polytrauma.
The numbers came after One Direction went on indefinite hiatus in 2016. Payne signed with Capitol Records that July and with Republic Records that October. His first solo single, “Strip That Down”, featuring Quavo and co-written with Ed Sheeran and Steve Mac, came out on 19 May 2017. It reached number three in the UK and number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100, and went double platinum in Britain and triple platinum in America.
Two more UK top 30 entries followed, “Get Low” with Zedd and “Bedroom Floor”. In January 2018 he teamed up with Rita Ora on “For You”, from the Fifty Shades Freed soundtrack. It reached the top ten in several countries and earned gold or platinum status in thirteen more, plus diamond in Brazil.
From X Factor to the solo charts
Payne first auditioned for The X Factor in 2008, aged 14, and got cut. Simon Cowell told him to come back in two years. He did, and at boot camp in 2010 he was put in a group with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik. That group became One Direction. The five finished third.
The band sold 70 million records worldwide. Payne co-wrote around half the songs on their third album and was among the band’s highest earners.
The solo years
His debut album, LP1, arrived on 6 December 2019. It was the only solo album he finished. It entered the UK chart at number 17 and the Billboard 200 at number 111, and went gold in Britain and platinum in Canada.
He kept releasing. An EP with Alesso came in October 2020, and in March 2024 he returned with “Teardrops”, co-written with NSYNC’s JC Chasez, after a kidney infection had forced him to postpone a planned Latin American tour in 2023. “Teardrops” missed the charts on release. It debuted at number 85 in the UK after his death.
He had a son, Bear, born in 2017.
