Simon Cowell has cancelled Britain’s Got Talent auditions for Thursday following the tragic death of One Direction star Liam Payne.
The 65-year-old TV star made the last-minute decision as he mourns the death of his friend.
Applause store, the company that organises tickets for filming, announced the update in a statement.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today
“Due to the tragic passing of Liam Payne, BGT has decided to postpone today’s auditions in Blackpool. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”
Payne’s first taste of fame came when he was only 14 when he appeared on talent show X-Factor.
He passed the first round of auditions after impressing the judges Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole, Danni Minogue, and Louis Walsh with his rendition of Frank Sinatra’s tune Fly Me to the Moon but was eliminated in the Boot Camp stage.
Judge Simon Cowell brought him back to the Judge’s House stage, but Payne was again eliminated. Cowell said he wasn’t ready and encouraged him to return to the auditions in two years.
In 2010, 16-year-old Liam Payne returned to X Factor and blew the judges — Cowell, Cole, Walsh and guest judge Natalia Imbruglia — away singing Michael Buble’s cover of Cry Me A River by Arthur Hamilton.
He wasn’t successful that year, either. But judge Nicole Scherzinger (of the Pussycat Dolls) suggested combining five of the unsuccessful solo artists — Payne, Styles, Horan, Malik, and Tomlinson — into a boy band. And the rest, they say, is history.
The band was an instant hit with fans, and the hysteria over 1D soon eclipsed The X Factor.
The group finished in third place but was signed to Simon Cowell’s label, Syco Entertainment.
Years later, Cowell would describe the formation of 1D as capturing “lightning in a bottle”.