1 week Ago By [email protected] (Matt Lee)
Stars of the music industry from Essex have led tributes to One Direction star Liam Payne who has died overseas. Liam, 31, died after falling from the third floor balcony of a hotel in Argentina. He rose to stardom aged 16 after forming boy band One Direction on The X Factor in 2010 alongside Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Harry Styles.
The breakthrough came having returned to the ITV show two years after his first audition. Olly Murs, Rylan Clark and Dermot O'Leary have all paid tributes in the aftermath of the singer's death. O’Leary, who hosted The X Factor during both of Liam's appearances, shared a photograph of the pair on stage, captioning the Instagram post: “The worst news”.
READ MORE: Essex councils to receive £3.5m to build 200 new homes on brownfield land ALSO READ: Chelmsford murder victim named locally as floral tributes left in his memory at scene of attack "I remember him as a 14-year-old turning up to audition on The X Factor, and blowing us away singing Sinatra. He just loved to sing," the Colchester-born presenter wrote.
"He was always a joy, had time for everyone, polite, grateful, and was always humble." Witham singer Olly Murs, who starred on The X Factor a year before One Direction, said he was “lost for words”, describing Payne’s death as “devastating” on Instagram. "We always had a good laugh when we saw each other, sometimes the catch ups were only short and sweet but when we did it was mostly about how annoyingly good his hair always looked, or our love for Becks, the old XF (X Factor) days and the tour we shared together," Murs wrote beside a picture of the pair.
“Liam shared the same passions as me, the same dreams so to see his life now end so young hits hard, I’m truly gutted and devastated for his family and of course his son Bear losing a dad.” Rylan Clark, from Stanford-le-Hope, posted a black and white image of Liam on his Instagram. On Twitter he wrote: "Extremely sad news.
V tragic and so young. RIP Liam x (sic)".
