Victoria Canal has hit out at the “lethality of the internet and music industry”, following Liam Payne’s death.
The 31-year-old singer /songwriter died earlier this week after he plunged from his hotel’s balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Victoria, 26, took to Instagram to warn about the dangers of the music industry and to slam those who had been blasting him online before his death.
She wrote: “If Liam Payne’s unexpected early death hit you as hard as it did me, you’re probably thinking about what it says about the state of our society and mental health in this industry. You’ve probably heard the details of the 911 emergency call, seen the pictures of the trashed hotel room, read the condolences.
“Just days before his death, Liam was relentlessly torn apart online for a seemingly douchey display of ego, dancing at Niall Horan’s show in Argentina. Anonymously, millions of people online mocked him as being over-confident, out-of-touch, arrogant. This is a person who, at age 14, was contractually obligated to fulfil an all too rigorous promo and touring schedule, was way too famous to function normally, and was driven into alcohol and feel any semblance of relief.
“The reason I feel so affected by this situation is that even after achieving everything an artist could possibly hope for, and having the financial stability one could only dream of, this young man died alone in the hands of addiction, thinking the entire world hated him.
“As an artist who feels like she’s just desperate to ‘get there’, white-knuckling every moment in a state of severe stress in the hopes of one day arriving to where an artist like Liam was, I feel completely duped by the promises of what ‘success’ in the industry, and how it will make me feel as a human being in myself. The truth is, the more eyes that are on you, the more authority people believe to have over their anonymous cruelty and opinion about you. He was know by millions and felt known by none. How tragic is that?”
She went on to stress how important it is to understand that success in music “cannot be my reason, my purpose”.
And Victoria shared how important it is to find “value in yourself outside of your art, outside of your product, your streams, your brand, your bank account etc. Now more than ever I feel this desperate desire to connect to the artists around me and say, you are not alone, I am not alone. We are not alone.”