LIAM PAYNE: THE FAME, THE GAME, THE TRAGEDY

LONDON. — “Get Ready, it’s about to get a little bumpy.”

That was the first sentence of a letter Liam Payne wrote to his 10-year-old self, which he read out on BBC radio in 2020.

“You’ll have the most amazing time of your life, travel the world and live a life you barely imagined,” he said.

“Then it will end for a while, and you will be left with nothing but the steering wheel. It will feel scary, like you’re alone, but you are not.”

The pop sensation died on Wednesday aged 31 after a fall from a hotel balcony in Argentina.

The exact circumstances around his death, or what happened in the final weeks of his life, remain unknown.

But the star, who shot to global fame as a 16-year-old member of One Direction, had spoken for years about his struggles with mental health – and the challenges of adapting to stardom.

Runners-up on the 2010 series of The X Factor, One Direction were a new, different-style of boy band – approachable, relatable, and, apart from their musical talents, normal.

They were the boys-next-door, whose age and good looks made them heartthrobs to millions of young fans around the world.

They went on to sell more than 70 million albums, complete five world tours, produce a feature film and star in a charity music video alongside then-Prime Minister David Cameron.

All that — at an age when many young people are worrying about their exams, their first loves, or getting tickets to their next gig – let alone starring in it.

“I mean, it was fun,” Payne would later reflect in an interview with Men’s Health Magazine. “We had an absolute blast, but there were certain parts of it where it just got a little bit toxic.”

Paparazzi photographers. Tabloid newspapers. Night after night in hotel rooms, separated from family. Blacked-out tour buses. Fans screaming for autographs.  And the new and rapidly growing world of social media.

Few, he felt, could understand the intense pressures of stardom at such a tender age.

“It’s almost like putting the Disney costume on before you step up on stage,” he said.

He also admitted he used alcohol to cope “because there was no other way to get your head around what was going on”.

By the time One Direction split in 2016, global fame was all the then 22-year-old Payne had known as an adult.—BBC.   

“It can be quite difficult to give up expectations of being a megastar,” says Prof John Oates, who was involved in the British Psychological Society’s consultations with the government on child performers and the duty of care for adult contributors.

“Being in a boy band ceases to become so possible when you’re no longer a boy. So there’s a need to become, in a sense, a different sort of famous person. So that’s a new challenge.”

Payne’s bandmate Harry Styles seemed more suited for that challenge.

His androgynous looks were more in harmony with the direction the music industry was progressing in 2016. He also began acting, featuring in Hollywood blockbuster Dunkirk the following year.

Payne, however, struggled to make the transition.

In 2019, he released a solo debut album, LP1. Eight tracks of R&B, it did not capture the One Direction fan base, and failed to take off.