With babyfaces, angelic voices and legions of female teenage fans, Justin Bieber and Liam Payne were often compared to one another at the height of their fame.

At the height of their fame, members of One Direction had long-running ‘feuds’ with other pop megastars including fellow British boyband The Wanted.

But most notably, Liam,  who died on Wednesday night aged 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina, feuded with his doppelganger Justin Bieber.

 

In their younger years, one unfamiliar with the pop scene could have been forgiven for confusing Bieber and Liam as two baby-faced, angelic-voiced singers who sported masses of sweeping brunette hair swept to the side and charmed fans around the world.

 

But with the success came the inevitable pop rivalries as the band and Bieber competed against each other for global domination. And the rivalry became a fully fledged feud after a YouTube video showed Liam Payne appearing to make a dig at the Canadian singer.

But, despite their initial feud, Liam, previously revealed how he and Bieber eventually connected and learnt they had much more in common than their boyish charm and good looks.

In a segment on a podcast with YouTube star Logan Paul filmed in 2022, which has resurfaced in the wake of his tragic death, the One Direction member revealed he had reached out to Bieber in an attempt to end the feud, and alluded to some of the striking parallels between the pair in the early days of their careers.

Liam Payne’s first taste of fame came in the X Factor in 2008 when he reached the judges’ houses stage of the competition before he was sent home. Two years later, when he came third in the contest as part of One Direction, his path may have crossed with Bieber for the first time.

 

The Canadian singing sensation, who also shot to fame at a young age, performed on one of The X Factors’ live shows in 2010, singing a mash up of Somebody to Love and Baby.

Although the pair didn’t appear together onstage, the parallels between the brunette boys at the time, who were just a year apart in age, were impossible to deny.

After the series concluded, Liam went on to achieve global fame in One Direction while Bieber’s solo career also went from strength to strength. The British boyband sold more than 70 million records worldwide while Bieber has sold more than 150 million.

Speaking on Logan Paul’s podcast Impaulsive, Payne told his side of the story as he recalled speaking on Instagram while ‘drunk’, when somebody mentioned Justin Bieber’s name.

 

Payne recalled: ‘I was like, “well the only thing between me and him is I haven’t been arrested”,’ noting in the same breath that he didn’t ever intend to offend Bieber.

He added: ‘It started some beef.’

Payne recalled how the feud, which began online, began to spill into real life because One Direction and Bieber shared some fans and the stars themselves would often bump into each other at awards ceremonies.

However, he noted one particular awards ceremony when both the band and Bieber were there, and Liam thought: ‘I’ll have a chat with him’ in order to settle the conflict.

Speaking about Bieber at the time, Liam noted: ‘He had grown as a person.’

He then recalled telling Bieber: ‘I’ve always felt for you… number one, I’ve done all the things that you’ve done and I’ve never been caught for any of them… number two, I’ve always really felt for you, mate, and I think in our situation we all suffer from the same disease,’.

He then claimed he told the Canadian singer how, while he was able to lean on his bandmates in times of strife, Bieber was a solo artist who may not have had the same support system.

Payne claims Bieber’s response was: ‘Bro, that’s given me chills.’ From there, the pair became friends.

He added that, following his own experiences, he wanted to help other young men and boys entering the world of showbusiness deal with the overwhelming nature of the industry.

Liam told the same story to Rollacoaster magazine in 2017 where he described Bieber as ‘a great guy’ with ‘a really good heart’.

He added of the time he broke bread with the Canadian singer: ‘I said to him, ‘Take my number and any time you want a chat, let me know as I’m here and I understand exactly what you’re going through and I understand your world’.’

In the wake of Payne’s tragic death after he fell from the third floor balcony at the Casa Sur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, people who knew the singer have reminisced over his years starting out in the industry and how, at the time, Bieber was the pinnacle of fame Liam could one day reach.

Konnie Huq, who presented The X Factor’s spin off show, The Xtra Factor, recalled how she told Payne in 2010 that he could ‘be as big as [Bieber] one day’.

She recalled the One Direction star being ‘self deprecating’ but noted he ‘absolutely did get to that level’.

Speaking to The Today Programme on BBC Radio 4, Huq said it was ‘so right’ to call him ‘just a boy’.

‘Really all he’s known in his adult, and pre-adult life as well to some extent, is being in the limelight, and, you know, thrust into this position of global fame, not just sort of being known in your own country, but everywhere, essentially.’

She added: ‘I do remember we had Justin Bieber on the show, and Liam sort of had the same hairstyle, bore a striking resemblance, and so we got him to come on the show. He was really embarrassed to meet Justin.’