One Direction

One Direction (commonly initialised as 1D) are an English-Irish pop boy band based in London, comprising Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. They signed with Simon Cowell's record label Syco Records after forming and finishing third in the seventh series of the British televised singing competition The X Factor in 2010. Propelled to international success by social media, One Direction's three albums, Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home (2012) and Midnight Memories (2013) broke records, topped charts in most major markets, and generated hit singles including "What Makes You Beautiful", "Live While We're Young" and "Story of My Life".

Their achievements include four Brit Awards and four MTV Video Music Awards among many others. According to Nick Gatfield, the chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment UK, One Direction represented a $50 million business empire by June 2012. They were proclaimed 2012's "Top New Artist" by Billboard.[2] According to the Sunday Times Rich List, by April 2013 they had an estimated personal combined wealth of £25 million ($41.2m) making them the second wealthiest musicians in the UK under 30 years of age.[3] After the release of Midnight Memories, One Direction became the first band in the US Billboard 200 history to have their first three albums debut at number one.[4] Additionally, the album was a global success, debuting at number one on the UK Albums Chart, and became the biggest selling album worldwide of 2013.[5]

Contents [hide]

1 History

1.1 2010–11: The X Factor

1.2 2011–12: Up All Night

1.3 2012–13: Take Me Home

1.4 2013–14: Midnight Memories and This Is Us

1.5 2014–present: Four and Where We Are

2 Musical style

3 Philanthropy

4 Image

5 Members

6 Discography

7 Filmography

8 Concert tours

9 Awards and nominations

10 See also

11 Publications

12 References

13 External links

History

2010–11: The X Factor

One Direction on The X Factor Live tour in 2011

In 2010, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson auditioned as solo candidates for the seventh series of the British televised singing competition The X Factor.[6] They failed to progress to the "Boys" category at "judges' houses" but were put together to form a five-piece boy band at Wembley Arena, in London, England, in July 2010, during the "bootcamp" stage of the competition,[7] thus qualifying for the "Groups" category. Nicole Scherzinger, a guest judge,[6][8][9] and Simon Cowell have both claimed to have come up with the idea of forming the band. In 2013, Cowell said that it "took him 10 minutes to put them together as a group".[10] Subsequently, the group got together for two weeks to get to know each other and to practise.[11][12] Styles came up with the name One Direction.[11] For their qualifying song at "judges' houses", and their first song as a group, One Direction sang an acoustic version of "Torn".[13] Cowell later commented that their performance convinced him that they "were confident, fun, like a gang of friends, and kind of fearless as well."[14] Within the first four weeks of the live shows, they were his last act in the competition.[15] The group quickly gained popularity in the UK.[14]

One Direction finished in third place and immediately after the final, their song "Forever Young", which would have been released if they had won The X Factor, was leaked onto the internet.[16] Shortly afterwards it was confirmed that One Direction had been signed by Cowell to a reported £2 million Syco Records record contract.[17][18] Recording

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