Liam Payne fans were left in tears after the Grammys aired an emotional tribute to the late One Direction star on Sunday featuring Chris Martin.
Payne was the focus of the awards show’s annual In Memorium tribute, which honors the musical voices that died in the last year.
After host Noah introduced the sequence, footage of Liam and his One Direction band members waving to a crowd of supporters from a rooftop played on a big screen.
“We never expected any of this to happen,” Payne said in a voiceover as a montage of him smiling and singing on stage rolled. “Actually sit and think about it, we’ve done some amazing things.”
As the clips played, Coldplay’s Martin performed a rendition of his group’s song “All My Love.”
Payne tragically died on October 16 last year after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. His death at 31 sent shockwaves around the world, with his “devastated” One Direction bandmates releasing a joint statement at the time, saying: “We will miss him terribly.”
“The tribute to liam really has me bawling :(( seeing stuff like this and it still just doesn’t even feel real. liam payne forever & always,” one fan wrote on X/Twitter after the Grammys tribute played.
“Wasn’t ready for this liam payne tribute,” another added.
“Enjoying the grammys and then getting hit with the liam payne tribute felt like getting hit by a semi truck,” wrote a third.
In December, five people, including the late singer’s friend Roger Nores, the hotel’s manager, and a receptionist were charged in connection to Payne’s death, Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office said in a previous statement.
Two others, hotel employee Ezequiel Pereyra and waiter Braian Paiz, were been charged with supplying cocaine.
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Nores has made a legal complaint in the US against Payne’s father, Geoff Payne, claiming that the singer’s father made “false and defamatory” statements about him to authorities, which led to his arrest for manslaughter having “abandoned” the singer “knowing that he was incapable of fending for himself.”
Court documents filed in Florida in January claim that Nores and the singer had a “dear mutual friendship” but insisted he “never had a legal duty of care” towards him.
