Singer/songwriter Liam Payne began his career wowing stadium-sized crowds as part of the boy-band sensation One Direction, and as a solo artist, he's leaned more into bold, experimental club beats and forward-thinking bops. Born in Wolverhampton in 1993, Payne tried out for The X Factor in 2008 but didn't make the cut. So, he tried again—and impressed the judges enough to get a slot in a five-member vocal group. That quintet wound up being One Direction, whose infectious melodies, heart-on-sleeve lyrics and onstage antics set off a teen-idol frenzy that dominated the early 2010s until their 2015 hiatus. By that break, Payne had already been working on his own material and released his first single, the sinewy Quavo team-up "Strip That Down". in the spring of 2017. Since then, he’s delighted in unpredictability: His debut album, 2019's LP1, features smouldering R&B, grand ballads and slinky electro-pop with collaborators like urbano megastar J Balvin, pop siren Rita Ora and EDM megaproducer Zedd. "It's fun to keep making wicked vibes," Payne told Apple Music in early 2020. "That's what I'm about."