Liam Payne
Liam James Payne, known in the world of music as Liam Payne, is a British singer, songwriter, and guitarist, recognized as one of the members of the band One Direction. He was born on August 29, 1993, in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom, and is the son of Geoff Payne and Karen Payne. As a child he always dreamed of being an Olympic runner, so he got up every day at 5 in the morning to run five miles before going to school. However, he decided to become a singer after discovering his vocal talent at his school. At the age of 12, he began to perfect his singing skills when he joined Pink Productions, a performing arts group that allowed him to show his qualities in front of an audience. While studying in high school, Liam Payne was a victim of bullying, so he decided to practice a little boxing. Later, he studied music technology at the City of Wolverhampton College in Wolverhampton. In 2008, Liam Payne presented an audition for The X Factor, where Simon Cowell discarded him in the final round because he thought he was very young. Cowell asked him to participate again when he was older. The young man followed advice, and in 2010 he auditioned again, performing “Cry Me a River” being cheered by the public and qualifying for the next round. In the next stage, he sang “Stop Crying Your Heart Out” by Oasis, but did not apply for the “Boys” category. After the audition at The X Factor, the jury Nicole Scherzinger suggested that Liam Payne be part of a group called One Direction along with Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson. The creation of the group was a fact in 2010, and the five young people were sponsored by Simon Cowell. During the competition, the band sang songs such as “My Life Would Suck Without You” by Kelly Clarkson and “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler, so the group became one of the candidates to win the contest. However, they were in third place, behind Rebecca Ferguson and winner Matt Cardle. Although Payne and his group did not win, Cowell paid a contract of 2 million pounds for One Direction to sign with the record label Syco. For the year 2011, already with One Direction, they released their first studio album entitled “Up All Night” which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, which made the band the first British group to debut with their first album in the position number 1. The single “What Makes You Beautiful” arrived at the first position in Ireland, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Liam Payne and the rest of the band, started the Up All Night Tour musical tour, with the aim of promoting their album, and they also released a DVD of the tour. In November 2012, he released his album “Take Me Home” which was ranked number 1 in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, the United States, Ireland and New Zealand. The first two singles of this album, “Live While We’re Young” and “Little Things” were a total success in many stations of several countries That same year they started their second Take Me Home Tour, performing concerts in 4 continents. In addition, part of the tour was recorded for his first documentary film called This is Us. In the summer of 2013, the first One Direction film premiered at London’s Leicester Square, the film entitled ‘This Is Us’, is a documentary in which they themselves were responsible for explaining how his career had been for a dream. In August of 2014, Liam Payne created and became director of Hampton Music Limited, a publishing company under which he would come out as a solo artist. For the year 2015, Liam Payne collaborated with the composer Jamie Scott in the song “The Night We Met.” On July 21, 2016, it was reported that Liam Payne had signed a record contract with Capitol Records to start recording music as a soloist.