Liam Payne, 31, former One Direction singer, dies in fall in Argentina

Liam Payne, who rose to fame as a singer and songwriter for British group One Direction, one of the bestselling boy bands of all time, died after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday. He was 31.

His death was confirmed by Alberto Crescenti, director of emergency services in Buenos Aires.

One Direction burst onto the scene in 2011 when the group’s debut single, “What Makes You Beautiful,” reached No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Five of its other songs reached the chart’s Top 10, including “Story of My Life.”

The group, which had 29 total hits on Billboard’s Hot 100, would go on to release five albums and become one of the definitive boy bands of the 2010s, largely by eschewing the sleek precision and polish of an earlier generations of pop vocal groups.

One Direction announced in 2015 that it was taking a break from performing as a group, and each of the artists has since invested most of their time in their solo careers. Payne released a single under his name earlier this year.

Payne auditioned as a solo artist on the television show “The X Factor” in 2008. But he found even further success in 2010 when he was put together with four other contestants — Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson — for another round of auditions that eventually turned into One Direction.

The band was brought together by Simon Cowell, the sharp-tongued English television personality and music executive — best known to American audiences from his time on “American Idol” — who tailored the group’s sound and songs to appeal to teenage girls.

Although the boy-band formula was nothing new in 2011, the appeal of One Direction’s members led to frenzied crowds outside pop-up concerts and movie deals.

When the group arrived in America in 2012 after the release of its debut album, “Up All Night,” “there was nothing security could do about the screaming,” Jon Caramanica wrote of a New York concert in The New York Times.

Payne was one of the group’s standout singers, though One Direction as a whole underscored affability and casualness. He had several songwriting credits across the group’s releases.

Payne put out a solo album called “LP1” on Capitol Records in 2019, which was full of collaborations across the musical spectrum: Latin music star J Balvin, rapper Quavo, electronic producer Zedd and more. His single with Quavo, the bouncy and flirty “Strip That Down,” reached No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. But in time, Styles would eclipse all other former One Direction members as a chart-topping pop star.

In 2020, Payne teamed up with Swedish producer Alesso for an EP. In a May 2023 interview with iFL TV, he said he was working on a follow-up and also revealed he was 100 days sober.

“I’ve been making an album for a change, which is quite fun,” he told iFL. “It’s been good, I’m excited to bring it out, and I definitely want to tour this time, which is unusual. Because I wasn’t sure I was going to tour for a long time. I was kind of over it a little bit, but I’m really excited to get back out on the road and go and see all the fans.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.