One Direction fans gather in Buenos Aires to pay tribute to Liam Payne: ‘He was part of our adolescence’

At 5 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, in the cosmopolitan Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo, the sirens of emergency vehicles heralded the news that would spread instantly via cell phones, in the media and on social networks: British singer Liam Payne was reported to have died after falling from the third floor of a hotel in the Argentine capital. Dozens of curious onlookers and fans of his band, One Direction, ran to the scene. Some arrived in a state of shock. Others approached the area in the hope that there had been a mistake, but this evaporated when they saw the police cordon, the television cameras broadcasting the incident live and the arrival of a group of forensic experts dressed in white coats.

Among those present, mostly young women, there were more questions than tears. Everyone had heard the brief official summary: Payne died instantly from head trauma. He fell from the third floor onto an internal patio at the CasaSur hotel. The manager explained that staff heard “a loud noise,” and when they went to investigate they found that Payne was dead. Minutes earlier, the police had received a call reporting “an aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”

From there, rumors among the more than 200 people in the street multiplied and diversified. The common thread was that the singer was under the influence of some form of substance, a hypothesis that will be confirmed or discarded when the results of the autopsy are made public. However, some maintained that he had entered the hotel alone and had violently resisted going up to his room, while others claimed that he arrived accompanied by two women and that he may have argued with them over money. Meanwhile, videos began to circulate on social media showing the room the singer was supposedly staying in, destroyed in a fit of rage.

A decade ago, One Direction was one of the most popular boy bands in the world, with a global legion of millions of fans, including Argentina, where people still remember the concert they performed on May 3, 2014. “I camped out for two nights to see them,” said Martina di Lalla, a 24-year-old fan who came to the CasaSur hotel Wednesday. “One Direction was part of our adolescence,” she said, “It’s like someone you know dying.”

Since the group broke up in 2015, the solo journey of its five members has been uneven, and Payne’s has been among the least fortunate. “I listened to One Direction a lot and although I’m a fan of Louis [Tomlinson] and not of Liam, to think that he died is tragic,” lamented Victoria, 18. “I think the way he died is terrible,” she added. She heard the news via a call from her mother when she was in a café with her friends, and the three of them decided to walk to the modern four-star hotel where the tragedy occurred.

It was 8 p.m. and fans were standing on tiptoe behind the police cordon, with their cell phones in their hands, ready to film if the hotel doors opened to remove Payne’s body, which at that time was still inside. Behind them, the family that owns the Chinese supermarket opposite the building had climbed onto some beer crates to get a privileged view.

Accusations of violence

The accusations of domestic violence against Payne, made by his ex-partner Maya Henry, left a mark on his public image. Just two days ago, Henry said in an interview that Payne had demanded she undergo an abortion without adequate medical assistance, to prevent the news from getting out. According to her testimony, after terminating the pregnancy, the singer abandoned her.

One Direction fans knew Payne was in Argentina because on October 2 he made a surprise appearance at his former bandmate Niall Horan’s concert at the Movistar Arena in Buenos Aires. The audience recorded videos, in one of which a fan could be heard shouting “I love you,” while Payne danced frantically to some One Direction classics performed by Horan. Many fans thought he had already left the city. None imagined that two weeks later he would be found dead.

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