On October 16, 2024, millions of loyal fans of the One Direction all the way they missed a beat: Liam Payne – one of the five members of one of the most famous boy bands of all time – died prematurely at just 31 years old, after falling from the balcony of his hotel room in Buenos Aires. There were immediately many social comments from the fandom and also from various colleagues on the tragic event, but the reaction of Benji of the duo Benji and Faith it was, it must be said, particularly emblematic and exciting for more than one reason.
Benji's reaction to Liam Payne's death
Benji entrusted Instagram Stories with a profound personal reflection, somehow comparing the experience of Liam Payne to his. A step back before understanding his words, for those who don't know the past. Liam Payne has suffered since the times of One Direction (who disbanded in 2016) of alcoholism problems. In recent years, in a series of interviews and social content, the singer had also spoken about his mental health problems and, in parallel, he had had to deal with very critical comments from the same people who once supported him (and the reasons for which will not be explored in detail here).
Benjifor his part, has never hidden the fact that he has used and abused substances (he spoke about it, among other things, in the piece “Sober“), but also of having had to face other types of complex situations (such as the path that led to his recent diagnosis of level one autism). Affected by the death of Liam Payne (the precise details of which are not yet entirely clear, but it is thought to be a suicide) Benji he wrote via Stories: “I cannot hide the fact that I am strongly affected by the death of Liam Payne […] I've said it before and I'll say it again, no one teaches us how to handle success, and success is nothing more than an amplifier of everything good and bad in your life, it's like pumping a body with steroids until a certain point explode”.
“There is a serious mental health crisis”
Benji at this point he referred to the mental health problems that a certain pressure linked to fame causes, also calling into question the use of drugs, and in this regard he added: “I'm fucking afraid of falling back into it like years ago, but this fear it keeps me alive, because when I used substances the fear disappeared even just for a moment. Don't be afraid to do crazy things, to destroy yourself and the people around you.”
Benji he then made a point of explaining that he developed his reasoning, in itself linked to a very delicate topic, not to “cause alarmism”. On the contrary, these important Stories served him to shed light on a topic very dear to him (“There is a very serious crisis in people's mental health, and here I open up to everyone, not just artists and musicians”). A fundamental message, created to raise awareness among its audience and all of civil society, to ensure that stories like Payne's (and not only) are never repeated again.
Benjamin Mascolo (Credits: Warner Music Italia Press Office).