On Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, former One Direction member Liam Payne died at 31 years old, leaving behind a son, girlfriend, family, and a legacy. His unexpected death made One Direction song streams skyrocket as fans listened in memory of Payne.
In 2008, Payne auditioned for X Factor but didn’t make it far. Two years later, in 2010, he auditioned again and was assigned to a group of boys who would soon be known as One Direction.
One Direction became one of the biggest boy bands of their time. Their first tour was a sold-out stadium filled with dedicated fans. In 2015 the band announced that they were taking an 18-month break but they never came back together and they all went solo in their careers.
Paynes’ solo career started on a high note in 2017 with his single “Strip That Down” which hit top ten but never reached the same status as the other former members. After his death, strip that down earned up to 6 million when previously it hadn’t had any major streams since release.
Payne died after falling off a Hotel balcony in Argentina. He was seen hours and days before interacting with many fans, they reported that he seemed a little weird but didn’t look that much into it.
“I saw it on social media and I didn’t believe it at first, but I kept seeing more and more about it and went to talk to my sister,” junior Sydney Manning said .
On Oct. 16, 2024, the day of Payne’s death One Direction gained 76% more streams and totaled to 21 million streams when the day before was 12 Million streams. In the following days One Direction accumulated around 63 million streams. One Direction songs that have gained the most streams since then are “Night Changes”, “Little Things” and “Story Of My Life”.
“Right after I found out the news I went into my car and immediately played one direction, I had to because they were a very important band to me,” senior Harmony Brown said.
All around the world fans have made memorials in places like Argentina where the accident happened, Detroit, New York City and other major cities.
All of Payne’s former bandmates have come out and spoken about his death and posted on the One Direction Instagram after not posting since 2020.
