One Direction, one of the world’s most well-known boybands came to rise July 23rd, 2010 after a well-known and controversial music manager, Simon Cowell put the five boys together.  

   In 2010, five boys, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan auditioned for the seventh season of the X-Factor as individuals.   

After each of the boys failed to pass through to the next stage of the competition, Simon Cowell, one of the tv-series judges went backstage and invited all the boys back, where he put them into a band now known as One Direction. 

   The boys continued the show as a band and earned third place behind the season’s second place winner, Matt Cardle and first-place winner, Rebecca Ferguson.  

   Due to the band’s heavy popularity among voters and fans of the X-Factor, One Direction continued their career starting with the release of their first single, ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ in Feb. 2012. The single became a top hit and solidified their spot as the United Kingdom’s next top boyband.  

   The band later released their debut album, ‘Up All Night’ followed by their ‘Take Me Home (Yearbook Edition)’ album on Nov. 9th, 2012 inspiring the ‘Take Me Home Tour’ that set the stage for the creation of their film, ‘This Is Us’ released in Aug. 2013.  

   One Direction’s documentary film featured the behind-the-scenes of their lives, music-making and tour. The film also focused on some of their shows on the ‘Take Me Home Tour’ including covers of two songs, ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ and ‘One Way or Another.  

   After the film’s huge success, their third album, ‘Midnight Memories’ was released in Nov. 2013 followed by their next album, ‘Four’ that marked the last of their music with bandmate Zayn Malik who announced he was leaving the band in Mar. 2015 due to mental health issues rumored to be caused by his time spent with the band. 

   Even though Zayn Malik left the band and continued to make music as a solo artist with his three albums, ‘Mind of Mine’, ‘Icarus Falls’ and ‘Nobody Is Listening’, the band decided to release one last album, ‘Made in the A.M’ before they announced their supposed 18-month hiatus in Dec. 2015. 

   As the 18-month mark hit, fans were expecting the band to come back together and release another album, but due to the boys’ successes as solo artists, One Direction has remained on “hiatus” since they announced their split in 2015.  

   One Direction fans celebrated the band’s ten-year anniversary on July 23rd, 2020 as they again expected some type of reunion. Even though a reunion was never given, partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, One Direction’s label released a ten-year anniversary site giving fans a major throwback to some never-seen-before behind-the-scenes footage and interviews. 

   Ever since the band’s split, many of the band’s members have been keeping in touch such as, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne who frequently talk on the phone and publicly communicate over Twitter. As the band still interacts, many One Direction fans still have hope that they will soon come back together.