All five One Direction albums return to UK top 40 following death of Liam Payne

All five of One Direction’s studio albums have returned to the UK top 40 as fans mourn the death of former member Liam Payne.

The 31-year-old singer fell from the third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last week and was found dead at the scene by police officers and the emergency services.

The band’s 2013 album, Midnight Memories, which contains the hit songs, Best Song Ever and Story Of My Life, returns at number 13 on the UK albums chart this week, while Made In The AM (2015) has landed at 21, according to the Official Charts Company.

Also making a return is Four (2014), at 22, Take Me Home (2012), at 25, and their debut offering, Up All Night (2011), at 38.

Liam Payne on stage during day one of Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball PA Media

Two songs from the boy band have re-entered the top 10 with Night Changes reaching a new peak on the singles chart at number six and Story Of My Life re-entering at number nine.

After the band announced their indefinite hiatus in 2016, the members went on to create their own music and Payne released his debut solo album, LP1, in 2019.

His song, Strip That Down, with Quavo, has re-entered the singles chart at 41 with his Rita Ora collaboration, For You, landing at number 43 this week.

His final solo release, Teardrops, has made its chart debut at number 85.

In 2008, Payne auditioned for The X Factor as a 14-year-old, singing Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me To The Moon, with judge Simon Cowell telling him to return to the talent show two years later.

In 2010, he impressed the judges with a rendition of Michael Buble’s Cry Me A River before being put together with four other solo hopefuls at the boot camp stage of the competition – the group which later became One Direction.

Following his death, tributes have poured in for Payne, who sang in the group alongside Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson.

In a joint statement, Payne’s former bandmates said they were “completely devastated” and will miss the singer “terribly”, adding the “memories we shared with him will be treasured forever”.

Payne died of multiple traumas and “internal and external haemorrhage”, a post-mortem examination report said.