Former One Direction band member Liam Payne fell to his death from a hotel room balcony in Buenos Aires on Wednesday. He turned 31 on August 29.*
Fans gathered outside the hotel after hearing the news that Payne fell from the balcony. His body was removed by emergency personnel following an incident at the hotel where the police had to be called to intervene.
Reuters reported that the police were called to the hotel in the Palermo neighbourhood “where they were notified of an ‘aggressive man who could be under the effects of drugs and alcohol.’”
The police statement also said that the hotel manager heard a loud noise at the back of the hotel. They arrived to find a man who had fallen off the balcony onto the interior patio. The man was identified as Payne.
The musician spoke out about his past mental health issues, namely his struggles with drugs and alcohol. Payne also said on social media that he had been in recovery for about 100 days. However, it’s now clear that those troubles had not completely gone away.
Staff at Payne’s hotel requested assistance. “Police had received a call from a worker at the hotel requesting urgent help with an intoxicated guest, according to audio related to the case obtained from the Buenos Aires security ministry,” Reuters reports.
“’When he is conscious he is destroying the entire room and we need you to send someone,’ the worker said, adding that the guest’s life was at risk because their room had a balcony.”
A member who works at the emergency 911 public safety system in Buenos Aires, Argentina told a TN television news reporter that they received a call around 5 p.m. “At 17:11, after 7 minutes, a team arrived.” When they arrived the man who was identified as the popular musician. Payne fell into the interior courtyard from the third-floor balcony. His injuries, he said, “presented lesions incompatible with life,” and there was no chance of reviving him. See video below in Spanish, translated to English by @nic_moneypenny on X.
In an ironic twist, on August 21 Payne posted a video on social media about antics he and the 1D crew used to get up to. When they were in Peru he thought he lost Sam, the tour manager, off the second story of the hotel. “We got really drunk and me and the tour manager were having a massive water fight. The two were locked in the bathroom. They escaped from an impending ice bucket of water by climbing through the bathroom window and sliding down two stories to the ground. Payne ran away before seeing Sam’s feet touch the ground.
In those days I was like a cat burglar, he said. “I climbed everything.”
I thought I killed the tour manager, he said, laughing. Sam didn’t show up until 4 p.m. the next day full of scrapes and scratches. He though Payne made scaling the building look easy.
Payne is survived by his son Bear, whom he says is a “mini me,” or a tiny version of himself.
Payne, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson who made up the popular boy band One Direction came together on the television series The X Factor UK in 2010. Simon Cowell told a 14-year-old Payne in 2008 that he wasn’t ready and to finish his high school before auditioning again, which left him in tears. He made it all the way to Cowell’s house in Barbados then went home.
Payne didn’t give up. The audience cheered for him when he came back two years later and sang Cry Me a River for the judges. Cowell assembled the group from solo artists who didn’t make it through to the final phase of the competition. The five “adorable” young members ages 16-18, made it through to Boot Camp together.
As One Direction they went on to achieve international success putting out five charting albums, one each year from 2011 to 2015, and won many awards along with the hearts of fans all over the world.
Even after the band’s split in 2016, all the individual members gained further popularity on their own.
On October 2, while at Horan’s show in Buenos Aires Payne was dancing the Macarena in the balcony with his partner, singing and spoofing for the camera. Video stories of the very energized Payne appeared on the same day and the next couple of days on Snapchat while they were getting ready, showing off their OOTN (outfit of the night), doing impressions of Elvis, travelling to his former bandmate Niall Horan’s show.
Payne had a large beverage can in his hand and went close to (what seems like) a glass partition at the balcony’s edge in the arena. At one point he was approached by a man who looked like a security guard.
In the back of the car he slurred his words a bit. “We’re on our way to the show. Good luck Mr. Horan. I’m very proud of you,” he said into the camera.
He sang lyrics to Night Changes by One Direction, harmonizing with the audio track: “Just how fast the night changes?/Everything that you’ve ever dreamed of/Disappearing when you wake up/But there’s nothing to be afraid of/Even when the night changes/It will never change me and you.”
The last image is a selfie of them with the caption that says “Reunited” along with a red heart across the top.
* according to a video of Payne on social media saying “today” was his birthday. The video could have been filmed at an earlier date.
by Cherryl Bird – Toronto, Ontario, Canada
X @ladycbird | Instagram @cherrylbird
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