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Louise Thomas
Editor
Liam Payne has been ridiculed by One Direction fans for his behaviour at Niall Horan’s concert in Argentina.
The singer, 31, catapulted to fame alongside Horan, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson on X-Factor in 2010. One Direction announced an extended hiatus five years later with Payne detailing disagreements between the group’s members on a podcast in 2022.
Payne arrived in South America claiming he wanted to “square up a couple of things” with his former bandmate. However, One Direction fans were left unimpressed by his actions at the Movistar Arena.
In a video shared by a concert goer on social media, Payne can be seen dancing and singing for a group of screaming fans below his private box at the show.
“Remember when Harry stayed under the radar when he went to Niall’s show meanwhile Liam…..” reacted one person on X/Twitter.
“And people still think there’s gonna be a 1d reunion and world tour,” commented another fan.
Other users defended Payne’s appearance claiming critics were “desperate” to make the singer “look bad”. Meanwhile, another person questioned: “Why are the comments so mean? I’m so confused.”
The backlash comes shortly after Payne made a statement on social media explaining his reason for attending Horan’s live performance.
“We’re going to Argentina,” he wrote on Instagram. “One, because we want to. Two, because we want to. And three, because Niall Horan’s playing down there and I think we might just go and say ‘hello.’”
Payne admitted: “It’s been a while since me and Niall have spoken. We’ve got a lot to talk about and I would like to square up a couple things with the boy. No bad vibes or nothing like that but we just need to talk.”
Horan and Payne’s reunion comes after the “Strip That Down” singer spoke about why he “dislikes” former bandmate Malik, along with a moment where he claimed one of his bandmates “threw” him “up a wall” on Logan Paul’s podcast in 2022.
Payne claimed there had been an “argument backstage and one member (unnamed), in particular, threw me up a wall”.
He continued: “So I said to him, ‘If you don’t remove those hands, there’s a high likelihood you’ll never use them again,” he said.
Payne’s name began trending on Twitter shortly after the interview was released, as fans criticised him for talking “crap” about his former bandmates.
“We are all aware there were so many bad sides of One Direction,” one fan wrote. “But honestly today, 10 years later it seems a little unnecessary to keep s****ing on the best opportunity of your life.”
