The 47-year-old singer spoke about her friendship with Payne, who shockingly passed away after falling from a third-story hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In a quiet moment of candor,
she explained that their last exchange was gentle and ordinary, the kind of check-in you only realize mattered later. “I’d known he was in Argentina. It was just chit-chat and pretty light,” she told The Times about the messages.
Scherzinger, who met Payne in 2010 on The X Factor UK, learned about his death shortly before taking the stage for her Broadway show, Sunset Blvd, for which she also won a Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. The timing could not have been harder. She still walked out and delivered the performance, clinging to a simple mantra that she has leaned on throughout her career. “The show must go on,” she said, about how she was still able to perform that night.
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In the days that followed, she found a small way to keep him close. “From then on, I dedicated a little part of the show to Liam every night. Just a little moment that always made me think of him,” the former Pussycat Dolls member sentimentally stated. It was not a grand gesture, just something personal and steady that helped her carry the loss while doing the work she loves.
Losing a friend in such a public spotlight also pushed her to say out loud what many artists quietly feel about life online. Following her friend’s death, Scherzinger made a realization about life in the public eye. “We need more compassion in the world,” she said, adding, “Our phones are our enemies as much as they help us. I wish we’d cancel cancel culture.”
She was not trying to score a viral moment. She sounded like someone who has seen the cost of constant scrutiny and wants the temperature turned down.
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There is a long shared history behind her grief. While she was one of the judges on The X Factor UK, she had the idea to bring Payne and the iconic One Direction band together.
After mentoring Payne on the British show, they later worked together on the Netflix program Building the Band, which finished filming months before Payne’s death. Those projects were stepping stones that kept their paths linked and their friendship growing.
During the interview with The Times, the Buttons hitmaker recalled how her and the For You singer’s friendship grew over the years. “I just adored Liam. He had such a good heart. I barely knew him when I put One Direction together. I just saw these talented boys and was like, ‘I’m coming out of a girl group — I know the power of a group,’” Nicole Scherzinger concluded.
