Liam Payne was remembered at the 2025 BRIT Awards.
The singer was honored months after his October 2024 death with a special video tribute at the annual awards ceremony, which was held in London on Saturday, March 1.
Host Jack Whitehall introduced the tribute, saying, “It is now time to take a moment to remember a very special person who meant so much to so many of the people in this room and to millions of you around the world.”
“Last October, we woke to the devastating news that Liam Payne had tragically passed away,” Whitehall, 36, continued. “He achieved so much in the short time that he was on this earth and was not only a supreme gifted musician but an incredibly kind soul who touched the lives of everyone he came into contact with.”
“We have so many amazing memories of Liam here at the BRITs, so tonight we celebrate his legacy and look back and remember the remarkable Liam Payne,” he concluded.
A video montage then appeared on-screen that first showed Payne singing the One Direction song “Little Things” into a microphone. Photos of him as a child next appeared, as well as footage of Payne recreating a childhood photo of himself with his parents Karen and Geoff and sisters Nicola and Ruth.
“I hope that me singing today brings some people some enjoyment somewhere,” Payne said halfway through the clip, before more footage played of the artist.
The montage finished with a black-and-white shot of Payne smiling.
Payne’s former One Direction bandmate Louis Tomlinson reacted to the tribute on X, writing, “Thank you @BRITs. Beautiful tribute. Miss you always brother x.”
Payne died at age 31 on Oct. 16, 2024, after falling off a balcony at CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In a press release by the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No. 14 released on Feb. 21, it was revealed that the late singer had “alcohol concentrations of up to 2.7 grams per liter in blood at the time of death” and “cocaine metabolites, methylecgonine, benzoylecgomine, cocaethylene and the medication sertraline” in his system.
The new information comes after it was reported on Feb. 19 that Payne’s friend Roger Nores and hotel workers Gilda Martin and Esteban Grassi were cleared of charges in connection to his death, per Rolling Stone and the BBC.
