In July 2010, Niall Horan (of Westmeath, Ireland), Zayn Malik (Bradford), Liam Payne (Wolverhampton), Harry Styles (Cheshire) and Louis Tomlinson (Doncaster) auditioned for the UK’s award-winning TV talent show, The X Factor.
They had entered as soloists and had never met each other – but during the Bootcamp stage of the competition, they were asked to group together by Simon Cowell in order to secure their position. They agreed, and One Direction was formed. Together, they went on to become the third place winners of the show. A few weeks later, a deal was signed with Syco Music.
It’s been five years since the world fell in love with One Direction. Since then, those five boys from the UK and Ireland have gone on to achieve a staggering 94 number ones, more than 46 million records worldwide, drum up more than 109 million Twitter followers and connect with 33 million Facebook fans.
There’s no doubt about it, they are the biggest band on the planet.