Liam Payne covers Justin Bieber's “Love Yourself” in Last Performance

In its finale During his 2022 performance, singer and One Direction member Liam Payne played a stripped-back set at a private venue in London. During the show, Payne – who died Wednesday after falling from a third-story balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina – ran through some of his solo hits before covering an acoustic version of Justin Bieber's “Love Yourself.”

Payne, along with his guitarist, showed off his vocal technique as he sang the hit from Bieber's 2015 album Purpose. The song, which was written by Ed Sheeran and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, also has special significance as Payne had previously spoken about the friendly competition between Bieber and One Direction. On November 13, 2015, both acts released major projects on the same day: Purpose came out, as did One Direction Made at dawnwhich led to fans arguing over which album would reach number one on the charts. Bieber added fuel to the fire by uploading a video to Snapchat in which he made a scared face and joked, “That face you make when you release an album on the same day as Justin Bieber.”

Payne revealed years later that he and Bieber ended up talking to each other and arguing about everything. “Justin and I had a really long chat in his caravan once,” Payne told Mirror Online in 2019. “I went in and told him, 'It's all good.' You don't need to do anything.' And then we talked for a really long time and he’s a really nice boy.”

Later, in 2022, he eased tensions when he spoke to Logan Paul and told him how involved he was with Bieber. He said that he told Bieber during their conversation in the trailer that he always feels for him because the pop star struggles with fame alone, while Payne has his bandmates to turn to for support. The cover of “Love Yourself” seemed to be another sign of respect Payne had for Bieber and his music.

Payne released his debut solo album, LP1in 2019 and went on tour around that time. However, he played less frequently around 2021 and the private acoustic set in 2022 is listed as his final show on Set List FM. During his career as a solo artist, Payne also collaborated with artists such as Quavo, J Balvin, French Montana and others.