One Path was famously assembled by British producer Simon Cowell after he noticed Payne and 4 different gifted younger males – Harry Types, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan – audition for the UK model of “The X-Issue.” Individually, they weren’t adequate, Cowell thought.
Collectively, it turned out, they had been a sensation.
Referred to as 1D by their followers, they turned a worldwide phenomenon as the primary group to have its first 4 albums debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Their huge fanbase, nicknamed Directioners, propelled the pop group to greater than 50 million data bought earlier than the members parted methods to pursue solo careers. They had been recognized for songs like “What Makes You Stunning,” “Finest Tune Ever” and “Story of My Life.”
Payne has spoken beforehand in regards to the psychological weight of fame.
“I don’t assume I battle within the sense of what you’d naturally consider once I’m strolling down the road with each particular person stopping me,” he informed Esquire Middle East in 2019. “I imply, it occurs typically however it’s primarily mentally the place you battle with it. It’s the preparing and at all times understanding that you just is perhaps photographed.”
Malik was the primary to depart the band in 2015. The others adopted go well with.
Payne launched his first solo album in 2019 titled “LP1.” Final 12 months, he introduced plans for a brand new album and tour that had been later postponed after Payne suffered a kidney an infection.
He had been open about previous struggles with substance abuse and talked about being six months sober in a video shared on YouTube in summer time 2023.
“It’s good to be on this place,” he mentioned on the time. “I positively don’t want these issues anymore. The social gathering’s over.”
He additionally thanked his former companion Cheryl Tweedy, with whom he had a 7-year-old son named Bear, for giving him the “freedom” and help to get effectively on the time.
Final spring, Payne launched the music “Teardrops.”
“I at all times assume in photos as a lot as I believe in sounds once I’m making music,” Payne mentioned in a video of him recording the music. “The emotions that these chords and various things give me, everybody of those songs is a narrative from my life.”