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From serenading celebrities with surprise cover songs to releasing his own original music, Harry Daniels delivered his debut single “I’m Him” first thing Thursday (Oct. 17). The electro-pop song, which made its radio debut on New York’s Z100 first thing Thursday, was inspired by Daniels’ rise to fame as a viral star on TikTok, where […]
Liam Payne was remembered by former One Direction bandmate Harry Styles’ mother, Anne Twist, on Wednesday (Oct. 16) just hours after the shocking news that the 31-year-old singer had died after a fall from a third-story balcony of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Twist posted a broken heart emoji on Instagram along with the message, “Just a boy …,” in tribute to the singer whose death has shocked and saddened 1D fans and fellow musicians around the world. At press time it did not appear that Payne’s former bandmates — Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson — had commented on his passing. But some former fellow X-Factor stars paid tribute, including Olly Murs, who starred on the British version of the show in the year before 1D was put together on the program after the members initially auditioned as solo acts.
“This news is devastating, am lost for words 😣 we always had a good laugh when we saw each other, sometimes the catch ups were only short and sweet but when we did it was mostly about how annoyingly good his hair always looked, or our love for Becks, the old XF days and the tour we shared together,” wrote Murs along with a picture of the two men laughing. “Liam shared the same passions as me, the same dreams so to see his life now end so young hits hard, I’m truly gutted and devastated for his Family and of course his son Bear losing a dad x am thinking of them! RIP Liam.”
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Also remembering the singer who broke out on his own after 1D went on hiatus in 2015 was Kelsey Parker, widow of The Wanted’s Tom Parker, 33, who died in 2022 from brain cancer. She posted a picture of Payne with the message, “Devastated hearing the news. Liam you were one of the kindest souls who supported Tom and I. You’ve continued to support me and the children in recent years ❤️ I will never forget the love and support you showed to us. I really hope you have found peace 🙏🏻✨ My thoughts are with your family, friends and loved ones ❤️.”
According to People, Payne was among the guests who supported Parker’s bandmates and Kelsey Parker at her husband’s funeral in April 2022. In a second post cued to 1D’s “Little Things,” Kelsey Parker wrote, “TODAY IS A REMINDER THAT LIFE IS TOO DAMN SHORT. SO LOVE A LITTLE DEEPER, HUG A LITTLE TIGHTER, AND NEVER PASS UP THE CHANCE TO SAY ‘I LOVE YOU’ TO THOSE YOU LOVE BECAUSE TOMORROW IS NEVER PROMISED. 🙏🏻✨❤️.”
The Wanted’s Max George also honored Payne, writing, “Absolutely devastating news. I met Liam way back when 1D were on X Factor. Over the last few years I had the pleasure of getting to know him personally and spent some treasured time with him. Liam was absolutely wonderful in terms of support when Tom fell ill, performing at the Royal Albert Hall with us for Stand Up To Cancer. He supported me a lot personally after Tom passed. I will never forget that. My thoughts are with his family, friends and fans all around the world at this tragic time. Rest in Peace Liam. Much love brother 🖤.”
Boy bands The Wanted and One Direction’s careers roughly overlapped, with the former band releasing their self-titled debut album in Oct. 2010 and 1D dropping their debut, Up All Night, one year later. The X-Factor, the British reality singing show that helped launch 1D, also remembered Payne, writing, “We are heartbroken.”
Another member of the Wanted, Siva Kaneswaran, wrote on his Instagram Story, “This hurts. He was so supportive at Tom’s funeral. RIP you kind soul.”
Check out the tributes below.
The X Factor has paid tribute to One Direction member Liam Payne following his death yesterday (October 16). The 31 year-old died in a fall in a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The British group formed in 2010 during their appearance on U.K. version of The X Factor‘s seventh series. During their six-year career, the […]
Hip-hop legends N.O.R.E. (who rose to fame with duo Capone-N-Noreaga) and Fat Joe teamed up for a riveting conversation about the intersection of Latin and hip-hop during the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week.
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The chat, moderated by Jesús Triviño, senior director of industry relations and global Latin culture and content, TIDAL, centered on the similarities between reggaetón and hip-hop and their role in taking the genre to mainstream in the United States.
Below, some of the best quotes from The Intersection of Latin and Hip-Hop panel:
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N.O.R.E.: On when he first heard reggaetón. “I was in Puerto Rico and I had a party that I thought I sold out but it was Tego Calderon’s show and he didn’t show up. I heard reggaetón and was like what is that it? It sounded like ‘boom boom mami mami.’ I was like is that Spanish reggae? Everywhere in Puerto Rico they were playing it. Radios in New York weren’t playing it so I was like how do I change this? So I kept asking DJs to play it [on the radio]. I thought the was best way to help this music was to sacrifice myself.”
FAT JOE: His interaction with El General. “Vico C he wasn’t reggaetón, he was hip-hop and because of him I heard El General from Panama. I tried to charge El General once for [something] and he cursed me out. It was through him that I first heard reggaetón, then Puerto Rico had its explosion and the guys who paved the way were Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, Tego, Ivy Queen, Wisin y Yandel.”
FAT JOE: On similarities between reggaetón and hip-hop. “Hip-hop is the birth of everything. If you want to learn something here is that hip-hop started everything. A lot of the things that you see in reggaetón and Latin hip-hop we’ve seen it already, from fashion to flows, right now it’s latin trap and trap comes from Atlanta, hip-hop and reggaetón they’re side by side.”
N.O.R.E.: On the impact of “Oye Mi Canto.” “Never in a million years people would get behind that. When you listen to that track, you become Latino for three minutes. Label records didn’t want to get behind that record but they did when it got 500 spins. I can say that the first reggaetón on MTV was mine. First reggaetón track on BET was mine. Daddy Yankee left ‘Oye Mi Canto’ out of a documentary he just released and I don’t know why. I sacrificed my own community for it.”
Fat Joe: On recording to reggaetón. “They used to offer me millions of dollars to do reggaetón but I was hip-hop, I couldn’t do that because it would seem like I was a wannabe. But I’ll do whatever for him (N.O.R.E.). I was like, ‘You sure you wanna do reggaetón?’ And he was like, ‘I love the way they feel, it makes me feel more of my Latino side.’ I was like alright I’m with you. And he was legendary. I always worked with reggaetón artists. I was behind this mixtape called Boricua Guerrero but some people say, ‘Oh Fat Joe didn’t embrace reggaetón’ when I put the reggaetón guys on that mixtape. We’ve been embracing reggaetón since day one.”
N.O.R.E: On his place in history when it comes to reggaetón. “When I started doing reggaetón, I had to fly out to these artists and it was a great experience. Back then R. Kelly was doing a gospel album and I thought, maybe it’s my turn to test my creativity. I claim it was my doing when reggaetón came to America.”
The 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week coincides with the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards set to air at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 20, on Telemundo. It will simultaneously be available on Universo, Peacock and the Telemundo app, and in Latin America and the Caribbean through Telemundo Internacional.
Liam Payne, who segued from One Direction star to successful soloist, died Wednesday (Oct. 16) at age 31. According to police, Payne died after falling from a third-floor hotel room in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
After forming in 2010 on the U.K. version of The X Factor, One Direction — Payne, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik (who left the group in 2015), Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson — became one of the most prominent forces on the Billboard charts in the 2010s, with Payne subsequently forging his own chart-topping solo career.
One Direction boasts four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200: Up All Night and Take Me Home, both in 2012; Midnight Memories (2013); and FOUR (2014). Made in the A.M., the most recent album by the group, which went on hiatus in 2016, reached No. 2 in 2015.
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The act tallied six top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100: “What Makes You Beautiful” (No. 4, 2012); “Live While We’re Young” (No. 3, 2012); “Best Song Ever” (No. 2, 2013); “Story of My Life” (No. 6, 2013); “Drag Me Down” (No. 3, 2015); and “Perfect” (No. 10, 2015).
One Direction crowned Billboard’s 2014 year-end Top Artists chart. The group also placed at No. 5 for 2015, No. 8 for 2013 and No. 10 for 2012. The act has drawn 15.4 billion in radio audience for its songs and 11.8 billion on-demand U.S. song streams, according to Luminate. It has sold 30.3 million song downloads and 8.3 million albums in the U.S.
According to Billboard Boxscore, One Direction grossed $583.6 million on tour and sold 7.1 million tickets. Its Where We Are Tour finished atop the 2014 year-end Top Tours chart, with a gross of $290.2 million and 3.4 million in ticket sales.
Payne quickly translated One Direction’s massive and loyal fanbase support to solo stardom. His debut entry on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart, “Strip That Down,” featuring Quavo, reigned for two weeks in October 2017.
Notably, after One Direction tallied four Pop Airplay top 10s, reaching a No. 3 best with “What Makes You Beautiful,” Payne became the group’s third member, in short order, to hit No. 1 — directly supplanting Niall Horan’s “Slow Hands”; Zayn first led solo with “Pillowtalk” in May 2016. Styles has scored four solo leaders on the list (in 2020-22).
“Strip That Down” also hit No. 10 on the Hot 100.
Payne added four more Pop Airplay entries as a soloist: “Get Low,” with Zedd (No. 23, 2017); “Bedroom Floor” (No. 35, 2017); “For You (Fifty Shades Freed),” with Rita Ora (No. 37, 2018); and “Familiar,” with J Balvin (No. 25, 2018).
Payne’s debut solo album, LP1, topped Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart in December 2019.
As a soloist, Payne garnered 3 billion in radio audience for his songs and 897 million on-demand U.S. song streams. His solo catalog also includes 125,000 song download sales in the U.S.
—Additional reporting by Trevor Anderson and Eric Frankenberg
J Balvin, Billboard‘s current cover star, spoke with Billboard‘s chief content officer Leila Cobo for a Superstar Q&A on Wednesday (Oct. 16) during Billboard Latin Music Week 2024. He spoke about his vision on the future of reggaeton, the power of collaborations and the importance of mutual support in difficult times.
Here are the best ten quotes from the Colombian superstar:
About A Great Day With J Balvin: “[The series] is really about sharing with artists, public figures, and getting them out of their comfort zone. Talking about topics that normally no artist talks about— their fears, their concerns. I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to get a lot of information out of them about their spiritual and mental health situations. With Jimmy Butler, Demi Lovato, Anitta and Brooklyn Beckham.”
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About collaborating with new talents: “Since I started [my career] I have always loved collaborating with new artists. It’s not something that’s just happening at this stage of my life. [When I started] I always wanted the opportunity that gave me that thrill to collaborate with [established] artists that could allow people to get to know me. So, I want that to happen for others, to be able to share in that dream of elevating their careers; to serve as a medium, without any interest of absorbing what they do.”
About Latino Gang: “My mindset has not only been about José or J Balvin, but about the general Latin culture, with Latino Gang. That our culture continues rising, that we are present, that in places where before we did not have the opportunity to sit, now we [are seated at the table].”
Explosion of Latin music: “Now there is a movement in Colombia with artists from different urban genres, trap, drill, dancehall, afrobeats, reggaeton. Now there is indeed a movement. Before in Colombia there were very few. The first ones who had the opportunity to get that exposure in the United States… at the beginning I was alone. Not because I was the best; simply because I worked and I was allowed to be one of the first to open the door for reggaeton [in the United States].”
About his friend Karol G: “Carolina is a person to be admired and highly respected. I had the opportunity to see all her process, all her patience and resilience to endure until her time finally came. I always had faith that this moment would come, and she knows it, and I think it has just begun. There’s a lot more to do. She is definitely the woman who strongly empowers everyone, not only women, but all the people who dream and say it can be done.”
About Colombian reggaetón: “We didn’t have a map, but we had a desire. Obviously reggaeton came from Puerto Rico. [In Colombia] we had Juanes, Carlos Vives, Shakira, but in the end, it’s a completely different genre. We lack a reggaeton artist that represents Colombia. We don’t have one. And I saw the opportunity to achieve that.”
About his downfall: “After that storm that fell on me, that earthquake, well here we are, stronger and more mature than before. We have had so many No. 1s non-stop, for a long time. I felt like, I was laughing, ‘why does all this happen to them, and nothing happens to me?’ And then, when it happened to me, I said: ‘Ah! Okay, I wasn’t the exception, it happens to me too.’ And that learning served me a lot, it helped me to know who my friends are and who are not, to give myself more to my family, to my wife, to my closest friends, accompanying me at the time of darkness.”
About his latest album Rayo: “Thank God, that I can make music, not out of necessity, as we did before, but being able to do it from another point of view and from another situation. It allowed me to connect with that inner child and enjoy the music without caring if it sells or not, but what makes me happy.”
About Coachella, extraterrestrials, and Will Smith: “I have always been very fanatical about extraterrestrial life, it makes me very curious. And I, wanting to revive my inner child, decided on that concept. I explained to Will Smith, from artist to artist, that the alien was part of the original concept. We both had our problems. The greatness of a person cannot be overshadowed by a few mistakes. I am not going to judge Will Smith for his mistake. You cannot erase the legacy that man has made.”
Latin Music Week coincides with the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards set to air at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 20, on Telemundo. It will simultaneously be available on Universo, Peacock and the Telemundo app, and in Latin America and the Caribbean through Telemundo Internacional
Liam Payne’s voice opens the debut One Direction single, his face the first to receive a close-up in its music video. After five teenage boys are shown horsing around on a Malibu beach for a few seconds, the shot dissolves into Liam’s perfect coif, his unbuttoned shirt, his disarming smile. He turns to the side in the middle of the opening line — partially to re-establish his smolder, but also to cast aside any doubts. “You’re insecure,” Liam sings, waves crashing behind the 17-year-old singer, his eyes readjusting to meet the world. “Don’t know what for.”
“What Makes You Beautiful” helped One Direction, a boy band from the U.K. that formed on The X Factor, start off a smash upon its 2011 release, as a brilliant pop debut with pinpoint melodies, power-pop production and immediate flashes of personality from its five members. Yet while Harry Styles stuck the landing on the stripped-down bridge, Zayn Malik oozed emotion in the second verse, and Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson showcased their respective charms in slow-motion music video shots, Liam’s opening verse adopted an ultra-confident stance that was crucial to the song’s tone.
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His voice was sturdy, and deep beyond his years — “Being the way that you are is enou-u-ugh,” he sang with utmost certainty, as the final syllable quietly echoes upward to set up his 1D bandmates with higher registers. The opening verse is not the flashiest part of the song, but its subtle delivery helped unlock what was to follow. It’s what made Liam indispensable; it’s what he would do in One Direction for years to come.
Payne died on Wednesday (Oct. 16) at the age of 31, a tragic loss for anyone who felt connected to the rocket ship of One Direction’s global stardom and invested in Liam as an integral part of that whirlwind of success. Over the course of the group’s five studio albums, One Direction’s sound congealed to create some of the most satisfying popular music of the 2010s — from the plucky pop of debut album Up All Night to the arena-rock riffs of Midnight Memories to the sun-kissed sing-alongs of Made in the A.M. — as their international popularity exploded. And within that sonic evolution, Liam turned himself into the group’s jack of all trades, a gracious utility player who could sing high when needed, complement his bandmates, and uncork a lead vocal full of verve and power.
There are plenty of instances of Liam commanding the spotlight in a One Direction hit, from “Best Song Ever” to “Steal My Girl” to “History,” and as the group graduated to the biggest venues on the planet, he demonstrated an ability to perform to enormous crowds while maintaining an assuredness and affability that made every stadium show seem downright intimate. The culture that 1D created over their run prioritized inclusion, and never talked down to their younger fans; Liam was a key part of reimagining the longstanding boy band model as a more global, social media-savvy and ultimately more accessible pop phenomenon.
And as the group’s members started gearing up for solo careers beyond One Direction, Liam became a more prolific co-writer, and contributed to some of the group’s strongest late-period material. After co-writing songs like “Story of My Life,” “Diana,” “Little Black Dress” and “Right Now” on 2013’s Midnight Memories, Liam helped mold One Direction’s most complete album, 2014’s Four, with credits on top-notch songs like “Fireproof,” “Clouds,” “Fool’s Gold” and “No Control,” among others. After co-writing six songs on 2015’s Made in the A.M., Liam had established himself as a creative presence in the studio — which would help guide him as he ventured into post-1D work in the late 2010s, on his own for the first time since entering The X Factor and then being grouped with four other teen boys.
“To be honest with you, I wasn’t going to do a solo venture,” Liam told Billboard in 2017, ahead of the release of his debut solo single, the rhythmic pop song “Strip That Down” with Quavo. “I was just going to go into songwriting and carry on and do that. But then I was like, ‘You’ve been trying to do this since you were 14 years old. You would be ridiculously stupid to turn down the option to have a deal.’” And Liam delivered on that deal: “Strip That Down” reached the top 10 of the Hot 100 and became a top 40 radio staple for months on end.
Liam kept collaborating with other pop personalities (Zedd, J Balvin, Rita Ora) while exploring hip-hop, R&B and dance music; his 2019 debut, LP1, was supposed to receive a follow-up in the near future, following the release of the single “Teardrops” earlier this year. As we remember Liam following his tragic death, we must also reflect on a musical journey that was cut far too short, with questions about what he would have continued pursuing as a solo artist, as well as any further collaboration with his One Direction mates, now left unanswered.
Yet in the same way those opening six words of “What Makes You Beautiful” still echo in our brains more than a decade after they rolled off of Liam’s tongue, One Direction’s impact on modern popular music cannot be forgotten — and Liam’s role in creating that seismic shift was indispensable. In ways large and small, he helped chart the course of a quintet that took over the world, a team player who was instrumental to the group’s foundation. One Direction’s music was always going to live on and reach future generations, but upon this sad occasion, Liam’s place within that music should be celebrated.
Alessia Cara has taken to social media to slam TMZ‘s unethical decision to share portions of graphic photos of Liam Payne‘s body following his death on Wednesday (Oct. 16). First reported by TMZ and confirmed by CNN, the 31-year-old One Direction singer died after suffering a fatal fall from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires, […]
Musicians and fans alike are mourning the tragic and untimely death of Liam Payne on Wednesday (Oct. 15), but in the hours leading up to his passing, the superstar was actively sharing on social media what looked like a beautiful and fun vacation. An hour before news of his death broke, Payne was sharing now-deleted […]
Bloomberg reports Jay-Z and the NFL plan on continuing their partnership. During the NFL’s owner’s meeting in Atlanta on Tuesday (Oct. 15), commissioner Roger Goodell said, “It’s been a mutually positive relationship, I’m not sure either one of us really spend much time talking about contracts. Jay is happy. Desiree Perez is happy. I’m happy, […]