2025 Grammys in Memoriam opens with Liam Payne tribute

Gone, but never forgotten.

This year in Memoriam at the 2025 Grammy Awards on Sunday started with a video tribute to the late One Direction singer Liam Payne, who died on October 16 after falling off the balcony on the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires. He was 31.

The video included voiceover of Payne along with clips of him on stage and waved for quantities of excited fans. “I never expected any of this to happen … I actually still think about it. We’ve done some amazing things,” Payne can be heard and say.

Born in 1991, Payne One Direction formed with Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson, after all individually tried to the British Reality Competition Series The X -Factor in 2010. The group recorded five albums of six years before joining unlimited Hiatus in 2016. Payne had songwriting credits on many of the group’s hits, including “Story of My Life”, “Stealing My Girl” and “Ready to Run.”

Coldplay’s Chris Martin then lent his voice to pay tribute to the other stars we have lost in the past year with a performance of “All My Love” on the piano.

As tradition is tradition that Martin Sang, photos of late stars including Kris Kristofferson, Ángela Álvarez, Steve Albini, Cissy Houston, John Mayall, Dickey Betts, Angela Bofill, Joe Bonsall, Fatman Scoop, Sandra Crouch, Richard Sherman, Joe Chambers, Jack Jones, Duane Eddy, Henry “Hank” Cicalo, Abdul Kareem “Duke” Fakir, and Will Jennings flashed behind him.

Other stars hailed for included: Kinky Friedman, Egidio Cuadrado, David Sanborn, Steve Lawrence, DJ Clark Kent, Mary Martin, Sam Moore, Tito Jackson, Marianne Faithful Homie Quan, Phil Lesh, Bob Newhart, Seiji Ozawa, Ella Jenkins , Wayne Osmond, Alfa Anderson, Richard Perry, Lani Simmons, JD Souther, Roy Haynes, John Titta, Rico Wade, Garth Hudson, and Toby Keith,

After In Memoriam was sent, Payne’s “Story of My Life” played inside the Crypto.com Arena, where Grammys was held on Sunday night in Los Angeles. Audience members were audibly emotional about the song choices.

The evening also included a star -studded greeting to the life and legacy of Quincy Jones, who died on November 3 at the scene to honor the music icon on Sunday.

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In addition to all these tribute, as announced last week, this year’s telecast had a renewed sense of purpose: to obtain additional funds to support Los Angeles Wildfire Relief efforts and honor and honor and dedication of the first respondents who risk their lives for To protect others. Sheryl Crow, Dawes, John Legend, Brad Paisley, Brittany Howard and St. Vincent opened the show with an emotional tribute to the city of Angels. (Before the ceremony, since the launch of Los Angeles Fire Aid Efforts to Support Music People Last week, Recording Academy and Musicares have raised and pledged more than $ 4 million in relief to music people affected by the fire.)