Liam Payne: Boy band star who had the X factor

Liam Payne previously enrolled on the pop radar as a new confronted 14-year-old, going for The X Variable in 2008.

He said before his first audition, with his Wolverhampton accent and thick fringe front and center, “I should really be concentrating on my [school] work, but I just think about singing too much.”

“I’d love to do it; it’s a dream.”

His version of Fly Me To the Moon dazzled the adjudicators, as did his innocent appeal – he showed a saucy streak when he streaked a mid-tune wink at Young ladies Out loud star Cheryl.

However, Simon Cowell was not entirely convinced that he was prepared, so he advised him to complete his GCSEs and return in two years.

The missing pieces were all now in place when Liam did exactly that, auditioning with another classic song, Cry Me A River, in 2010.

Cowell’s eyes lit up as he noticed Liam’s newfound maturity and charisma as he began to sing.

Liam possessed whatever the X factor was.

That year, the judges were still faced with a difficult decision, so they decided to keep five boys by grouping them together in a group.

Liam, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Harry Styles were educated they were currently a teen pop band – and One Heading were conceived.

They finished third in the final, behind Rebecca Ferguson and Matt Cardle, in front of 17 million viewers, but they didn’t actually win The X Factor that year.

But when Cowell saw something good, he knew it. They were signed to his label, and although they had to wait nine months for their first single to come out, they soon outperformed their rivals.

That solitary was The thing Makes You Wonderful, a moment pop exemplary that went directly to number one – the first of four UK outline clinchers over the course of the following four years.

Liam was given a role as the reasonable one, and told the Gatekeeper in 2019 around one of the gathering’s initial lodging stays.

“We have plates being tossed through the window, beddings being ridden down the steps, and I’m getting calls from the supervisor saying: ‘ You want to figure it out’.”

He told Scott Mills on BBC Radio 1 in 2020 that he was “really quite uptight about a lot of everything that was going on” at the time because the sudden fame was a lot to take in.

“When there was so much pressure on it, it was hard to have fun at times in that situation.”

But he learned to relax after about a year. Furthermore, the better time we had, the more effective it got.”

Pop mania to the extreme was sparked by One Direction—70 million records were sold, thousands of teens camped outside their hotels, and stadiums were packed with screaming fans.

He told the BBC in 2019 that “I was very confused about fame when it all happened,” and that “learning to be a person outside of your job was difficult.” But now I think I understand. I am blessed.”

As time went on, Liam realized that he was good at both singing and writing songs. He wrote songs for half of the band’s last two albums, including History, Steal My Girl, and Story Of My Life.

However, as the pressure returned, band tensions rose.

In 2022, Liam revealed to Logan Paul’s podcast that things were close to breaking up. He said, without naming the bandmate in question, “There was one moment when there was an argument backstage, and one member in particular threw me up a wall.”

It became abundantly clear that One Direction was coming to an end. “At every single show, it was so volatile,” he stated. I was slowly losing track of the story.”

After the band went on “hiatus” in 2016, Liam turned to alcohol and continued to drink.

He told the BBC, “It was very erratic behavior on my part – I was partying too hard.”

With his 2017 debut single Strip That Down, which featured US rapper Quavo and debuted at number three and was nominated for two Brit Awards, Liam launched a solo career in the world following 1D.

His collaboration with Rita Ora on the Fifty Shades Freed soundtrack song For You reached number eight and was nominated for another Brit award.

And eight years later, when he was 14 years old, he started a relationship with Cheryl in the X Factor audition room. They had a child, Bear, in 2017, yet all the same split up in 2018.

In 2020, he proposed to the model Maya Henry, but they later broke up. She stated earlier this month on social media that the singer had recently been sending her unwelcome messages on a regular basis.

He and US influencer Kate Cassidy had been together since 2022 following their relationship.

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  Liam Payne: Boy band star who had the X factor
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