Niall Horan has made the emotional revelation that one of the songs on his upcoming album, Dinner Party, is a tribute to Liam Payne.
Liam made up one fifth of the iconic boyband One Direction, alongside Niall, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson, but tragically died at the age of 31 in October 2024.
Niall Horan’s opened up in a new GQ interview
In a new interview with GQ Hype, Niall shared details of his new album as well as grieving the loss of Liam. It’s this grief that inspired one of the songs on the album. End of an Era was written about Liam by Niall, along with Julian Bunetta and John Ryan, both of whom met the popstars when they were teenagers.
On the track, Niall reminisces about the “pure magic” of his and Liam’s friendship. “Remember what it was like, time passes so fast, and I couldn’t tell you goodbye,” he sings.
For his part, co-writer Julian said: “We just kept working on it until we felt it was right.”
“I love it,” he added of the finished song. “It could be easy not to write about it because it’s a hard subject. It’s a hard thing to do. So I’m proud of him for doing it.”
As for the impact of Liam’s death itself, Niall admitted he “went into hiding a little bit.” But his grief was eased slightly by the outpouring of love from fans across the world. Speaking to GQ, Niall recalled seeing “lots of photos and videos and things of us growing up together.”
This culminated in feelings of nostalgia but also “with fear and sadness and all the stuff that comes with grief.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Niall spoke of seeing Liam just days before his tragic passing. “It was great,” he said of their encounter in Buenos Aires, the city in which Liam fell to his death from a balcony. “[Liam] seemed in good form and we had a good laugh, a good reminisce.”
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