Liam Payne, the 31-year-old former singer of the English-Irish pop boy band One Direction, fell from a third-floor balcony and died at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Wednesday.
The autopsy revealed that Payne’s death was caused by multiple traumas including internal and external bleeding, with no evidence suggesting the involvement of others. It remains uncertain whether Payne intentionally jumped or accidentally fell from the third floor.
“We’re completely devastated by the news of Liam’s passing,” the four remaining members of the band said in a statement on the official One Direction Instagram account, their first post since 2020. “The memories we shared with him will be treasured forever.”
Payne’s death led to a shared shock and sadness among USC students, as many expressed the ingrained nostalgia and lasting legacy One Direction left among teenagers and young adults..
“Well, you know, growing up, they were just kind of omnipresent in my life.” Michael Bordeaux, a sophomore studying film and TV production, said. Bordeaux discussed his familiarity with Liam Payne and One Direction, noting their ubiquity during his youth.
“You know, everywhere you look, it feels like, you know, you turn your head and you see One Direction. You turn your head the other way, you see One Direction. Just, you know, you see them in multiple directions,” Bordeaux said.
Maya Morales, a sophomore film production student, said she learned about Liam Payne’s passing while touring apartments. “I just immediately called my friend back home, who’s a huge fan, and we were talking about it for like, 10 minutes, and she was crying,” she said. “It was really emotional and just very shocking, because he was really young, and the news was just a huge surprise, and I just felt kind of skeptical based on how he died and the controversy around his public life before he died.”
Dylan Robinson, a junior and popular music songwriting major, said he learned of Payne’s death through a group chat with his pop classmates. As a musician, he expressed a sense of resignation to such news.
“Yeah, it sucks. I mean, as a musician, you’re pretty much conditioned to, like, hear about those things all the time. I mean, a lot of great musicians went that way,” Robinson said.
Fiona Church, a sophomore studying music industry, expressed empathy for the pressures faced by musicians in their respective fields. “You never know what somebody’s going through behind the scenes,” Church said.
“I think it’s a good lesson for people to be, you know, a little bit kinder and a little bit more understanding to people who are performers,” Church said.