Niall Horan opens tour with Liam Payne voice tribute in Birmingham

Niall Horan opened his Dinner Party Live on Tour in Birmingham on Tuesday, Sept. 22, ending the night with the recorded voice of his late One Direction bandmate Liam Payne in honour of their shared history.

He played the recording at the end of his performance of 'End of an Era'. The show was the opening night of the tour, according to Billboard.

In the recording, Payne says, "We thought something might happen, but never anything like this." The room went quiet. Horan let the tape finish before he left the stage.

'End of an Era' is the closing track on Dinner Party, Horan's fourth solo album. The album was released on June 5, and the song was later released as a single. Horan started writing the track years ago and then revised it after Payne's death in October 2024.

Payne died at age 31. Horan has said that turning the song into a tribute helped him process grief.

He described the work as therapeutic. He finalised the new version in ten minutes, according to ContactMusic. That speed reflected how direct the feelings were, rather than any plan for the song.

In the days after Payne's death, Horan said he was "absolutely devastated" by the loss of his amazing friend. He said the news "doesn't feel real", according to the BBC.

One Direction formed in 2010 after Horan, Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik were brought together on the UK edition of The X Factor. The group scored four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, the US albums chart, and six top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, the US singles chart, before going on hiatus in 2016.

As a solo artist, Horan topped the Billboard 200 in 2017 with Flicker, his debut album. Dinner Party debuted at No. 7 on the same chart, giving him his fourth consecutive top 10 album.

For fans in the room, the meaning needed no explanation. A song about an ending carried a voice from the very beginning.