Liam Payne & James Corden Face Off In Boy Band Riff-Off

Former One Direction member Liam Payne made a special appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden last night and participated in a riff-off.

LIAM PAYNE & JAMES CORDEN IN BOY BAND RIFF-OFF

Corden started the routine by saying how he much prefers boy bands to solo artists, at which point Payne came to the stage to rebut the claim. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” the newly-solo singer said. “What’s going on? Don’t get me wrong boy bands are great, obviously, but there are plenty of good solo artists out there as well, you can’t be slamming solo artists… How about we settle this right here, right now, James?”

At which point the host grabbed a mic from beneath his desk to partake in the boy band vs. solo artist riff-off with special guest a cappella group the Philharmonic. Corden was up first and took on *NSYNC’s “Tearin’ Up My Heart.” Payne then rocked George Michael’s “Faith,” ending with a pelvic-thrust.

“Do not ever thrust that at me like that again. If that’s how you wanna play this, fine, you know what you need?” he asked before jumping into “MMMBop” by Hanson. Payne followed up with Ed Sheeran‘s “The Shape of You.” “Ok, ok, calm down. That was…fine. But here’s the truth of it, you’re just singing the hits of other solo artists, what’s the problem Payne-o, got no hits of your own?” Corden mocked, prompting Payne to break into his only solo hit, “Strip That Down” (which was incidentally written by Sheeran).

In the end, the pair decided that both boy bands and solo artists do great things, and jumped into One Direction hit “Best Song Ever,” after Payne casually mentioned that he’s already in a boy band. The crowd had a blast, as well as Corden, Payne, and the Philharmonic.

Payne also released a summer jam with Zedd in July called “Get Low,” which didn’t get much traction. In a recent interview, he said that the One Direction guys would probably “reunite at some point in the future. We have to,” he said. “I mean we’ve got an album we haven’t even toured yet, and I want to write some more songs as well with the boys.”