The famous British singer Liam Payne died at the age of 31 after falling from the balcony of his hotel in Argentina.
According to Argentine media, the British singer, better known as one fifth of One Direction, fell from the balcony of his room on the third floor of the Casa Sur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires.
Grieving fans gathered outside the hotel, sharing their shock and sadness as they lit candles in tribute to the singer, who rose to global fame on The X Factor.
During the height of their boy band fame, One Direction visited Australia four times in a series of much-discussed visits and Payne even considered moving there.
One Direction, made up of Payne, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayne Malik, first visited Australia in 2012, when they especially attended the Logies.
They returned to the country again in 2013 and 2014, when they performed at the ARIA Awards, before returning for a final tour in 2015, months before the band went on hiatus in January 2016.
Payne last visited Australia in 2018 and appeared to have forgotten his previous trips to Australia at that point, as he claimed he had never visited before.
The global pop star, who once said that “geography was never my strongest subject”, made the notable comment after completing a solo performance at the Everest horse race in Sydney.
Famous British singer Liam Payne (pictured in Sydney in 2018) died at the age of 31 after falling from the balcony of his hotel in Argentina.
“I’m sorry the weather was so bad… I’ve never been to Australia before,” she told her fans.
Australia wasn’t the only country Payne forgot he visited, stating in an online broadcast that he had never set foot in the Philippines despite performing in the country’s capital, Manila, in 2015.
Following protests from his fans, Payne later corrected himself: “Wow, apologies to the Philippines, my geography was never my strongest subject.” How could I forget beautiful Manila!!’
Reflecting on that mistake in 2019, Payne told the London Evening Standard: “My dad often jokes that I’ve been all over the world and I don’t know what the f**k is like anywhere.”
Payne’s last Australian performance was solo in Everest Carnival in 2018, but previously appeared on stage in Australia several times with One Direction.
However, the band’s visits to Australia were not without controversy and they made headlines at the time for their comments about the famous local wildlife.
Payne and his band One Direction visited Australia four times in a series of much-discussed visits, and Payne even considered moving there (he appears in Sydney in 2018).
Payne first made the uncomfortable comment in 2012 when he visited a sanctuary in Brisbane and claimed to be “really scared” while holding a koala for fear of contracting chlamydia.
‘This is worrying. “I would never have caught him if I’d known,” he told The Sun at the time.
He once again made headlines in 2013, during the Adelaide leg of the band’s Take Me Home tour, when Payne saw a rush of fans standing outside the band’s hotel.
He sent out a tweet and warned them to stay away from the grass, which he described as a “snake habitat.”
“It’s not worth it for someone to get hurt,” he wrote.
When fans couldn’t get out of the way, the frustrated singer sent a follow-up tweet: “Aren’t you reading what I’m saying? It’s a change of snake habitat.”
They had already had a run-in with their Australian fans on the same tour after some fans surprisingly broke into the band’s luxurious beachfront accommodation.
During the Sydney leg of the tour, a group of fans went too far by breaking into the property and absconding with a pair of Payne’s underwear.
A witness told the Daily Telegraph at the time that she saw six girls and an eight-year-old boy jump over a door to enter Payne’s Palm Beach apartment.
‘They are Calvin Klein underwear. They only took the underwear. “They wanted to take a wetsuit but someone bought it inside,” he said.
One Direction’s Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson arrive at the 2012 Logie Awards in Melbourne
When asked about his craziest experiences as a fan on Fitzy and Wippa’s NOVA radio show in 2014, Liam revealed that trip was “the worst to Australia” and cited the robbery.
The UK-born star said the experience changed her view of the country, a place she once considered buying a permanent home.
“I always had Australia in mind as a place I’d like to move to if things got too crazy,” he told hosts Ryan Fitzgerald and Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli.
“But when we first came to Australia I didn’t expect it to be so crazy.”
“I love Australia, I love the atmosphere, so relaxed, I really like it, but it’s too crazy for us now,” he added.
Payne’s rise to fame began in 2008 with an ‘extraordinary’ X-Factor audition that has been circulating on social media following his tragic death.
Payne last visited Australia in 2018 for the Royal Randwick Races (pictured) and appeared to have forgotten his previous trips to Australia as he claimed he had never visited before.
Fans flocked YouTube to watch 14-year-old Payne audition for the UK talent show.
After failing to win the competition, she was told to return two years later and returned to the reality show at the age of 16.
He was then placed in a band alongside fellow contestants Styles, Malik, Horan and Tomlinson in what would become One Direction, one of the most successful boy bands in music history.
The band rose to fame in 2010 and won the hearts of thousands of teenage fans, selling more than 70 million records worldwide.