Simon Cowell postponed Britain’s Got Talent auditions today following the death of Liam Payne.
ApplauseStore, which manages tickets for the show, said on X that today’s auditions in Blackpool had been postponed due to “the tragic passing of Liam Payne,” adding: “We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”
Ant and Dec, who host Britain’s Got Talent, were subsequently pictured leaving a hotel in Lancashire near where the show was supposed to be filmed today. The ITV series from Cowell’s Syco Entertainment and Thames is into its 18th season and is a stalwart of the UK entertainment calendar.
Cowell created both Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor and Payne was a contestant on the latter. He went on to be part of One Direction, the pop group formed by Cowell in Season 7 and arguably the most famous to emerge from the show. Along with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik, Payne was involved with the release of five studio albums from 2011-15, all of which went platinum in the U.S. and hit No. 1 or No. 2 stateside and in the and UK. Big hits included “What Makes You Beautiful,” “Little Things” and “One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks).”
The death of the 31-year-old has shocked the industry. He died yesterday after falling off a balcony from the third floor of a hotel in Argentina. La Nación reported that before the incident, police were called by Hotel Casa Sur staff to report “an aggressive man that could’ve been under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”
Tributes have been flooding in today including from the likes of Paris Hilton, Charlie Puth and the team behind The X Factor, along with Payne’s family, who released a statement in the past hour saying they are “heartbroken.” He had one son, Bear, with singer Cheryl in 2017.
