The 31-year-old singer Liam Payne fell from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires. There was no chance of resuscitation. Payne was a member of the British band One Direction.
British singer Liam Payne has died of multiple trauma and bleeding after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires. This is what the autopsy showed, said the public prosecutor. Further testing will be carried out to confirm evidence of drug and alcohol use prior to the fall. According to police, everything indicates that the former member of the boy band One Direction was alone in his room when he fell from the balcony.
At the age of 31, Payne collapsed in a hotel courtyard in the Argentine capital. According to prosecutors, he may have been going through a substance use crisis.
Argentine police found the musician’s room in “total chaos” during a search after his death, the authority said in a statement on Thursday. A bottle of whiskey, a lighter and a mobile phone were found in the courtyard of the hotel where Payne fell. In the luxury hotel room in the trendy area of Palermo, police said they found over-the-counter medication and a sedative. “When we went in there was complete disharmony and various things were broken,” he said.
A hotel employee previously called the emergency number because of a riotous guest. The employee said he feared for the man’s life.
Fans gather in front of the hotel
After the news of his death became known, fans gathered for a candlelight vigil in front of the hotel. Payne rose to stardom as a member of the boy band One Direction (“What Makes You Beautiful”). Since 2016, he has been active as a solo artist like his former bandmates Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik, who left the group a year earlier.
In August 2023, the singer (“Strip That Down”) canceled his planned tour of South America at short notice due to a kidney infection. He spent a week in the hospital with a “real kidney infection,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. According to media reports, he is said to have traveled to Buenos Aires to attend, among other things, a concert with his former band Horan at the beginning of October.
Following Payne’s sudden death, companions from the music world as well as friends and fans expressed their grief on social media. British 80s star Boy George was shocked and saddened on X platform “The news of Liam Payne’s death is so horrible,” wrote US reality star and singer Paris Hilton on X.
“I can’t believe it’s true…”
“We are deeply saddened to hear of the tragic death of Liam Payne,” said the Brit Awards’ X account. Your thoughts and prayers are with your friends and family. The streaming platforms Spotify and Amazon Music and the music channel MTV also expressed their condolences.
Rapper Flavor Flav scathingly wrote that “He came to the audition for X Factor and blew us away singing Sinatra.” Payne was always polite, grateful and always humble. German DJ Zedd, who collaborated with Payne on his 2017 single “Get Low,” wrote on X: “I can’t believe it’s true…”
Payne spoke about his mental health issues in an interview with Britain’s “The Guardian” in 2019.