One Direction Biography

One Direction are a British boy band, formed in 2010 on the UK TV talent show X Factor. The band's members (Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan) all auditioned for the show as solo members but didn't quite make the grade. However, the X Factor judges could still see potential in all of them, so asked them to return as a group, which they did. They may not have won that competition (that honour went to solo artist Matt Cardle) but they have gone on to become the most successful act from that year's show, by a long shot.

One Direction: X Factor

It was Harry Styles that came up with the name One Direction, once the band had been asked to get together to remain in the show. Along with the other groups, Diva Fever, Belle Amie and F.Y.D., One Direction had Simon Cowell as their mentor on the show. Within four weeks, they were the last of Cowell's acts still in the contest. 

Eventually, they finished in third place behind the winner, Matt Cardle and runner up, Rebecca Ferguson. Not long after the show had ended, it was announced that the band had signed to Simon Cowell's label; Syco for a reported £2 million.

One Direction: Life After X Factor

In January 2011, One Direction began recording their debut album getting together the One Direction songs in Los Angeles, where they worked with RedOne on production duties. The following month, they embarked on the now-traditional X Factor Live tour, with the other finalists, where they performed to around 500,000 people around the UK.

The band's debut single, 'What Makes You Beautiful,' was released in September 2011 and went straight to the top of the UK singles chart. It also broke the record for pre-sales for Sony Music Entertainment. Their follow-up tracks, 'Gotta Be You' and 'One Thing' were both top ten hits and the band went on to sign a deal with Columbia Records in North America.

When 'What Makes You Beautiful' was released in the USA in February 2012, it debuted at number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the highest charting debut for a British band since 1998. The track peaked at number four in the US and has since sold over 3 million units Stateside.

Up All Night was the name of the debut album from One Direction. Released globally in early 2012, it became the fastest selling debut album of 2011 in the UK and became a chart-topper in 16 countries around the world. This included the US, where One Direction became the first British band in US chart history to top the Billboard 200 chart with a debut album. 

Having earned themselves a spot in the Guinness World Records, One Direction then went on to find awards success. At the 2012 BRIT Awards they won Best British Single for 'What Makes You Beautiful' and performed 'One Thing' at the 2012MTV Video Music Awards, cementing their popularity on both sides of the Atlantic.

The band started recording their second studio album, Take Me Home, in Sweden, in May 2012, with a scheduled release date of November 2012. The debut single to be released from the album, 'Live While We're Young,' found worldwide success and shifted 314,000 units in its opening week in the US. To promote the album, they booked a concert in New York City's Madison Square Garden in December 2012.

2012-2013 Take Me Home

One Direction's second studio album, Take Me Home, was released in November 2012. Take Me Home was written in groups and has an average of just under five songwriters per track. Savan Kotecha, Rami Yacoub, and Carl Falk, who composed One Direction's hits "What Makes You Beautiful" and "One Thing", spent six months in Stockholm developing songs for the album, and were able to shape melodies around their tones. One Direction began recording the album in May 2012, in Stockholm at Kinglet Studios. The album cover artwork features the group surrounding a traditional British K2 red telephone box, a familiar sight on the streets of the UK. Take Me Home garnered mixed reviews from music critics. There was praise for its quality of production, while it was criticised for its generic, rushed nature. The album's lead single, "Live While We're Young", released in September 2012, reached the top ten in almost every country it charted in and recorded the highest one-week opening sales figure for a song by a non-US artist in the US. The album and its second single, "Little Things", both debuted at number one in the UK simultaneously; something that One Direction became the youngest act in British chart history to achieve. Take Me Home sold 540,000 copies in its first week in the US, debuted atop the Billboard 200, and topped the charts in more than thirty-four other countries. Additionally, Up All Night and Take Me Home were the number three and number four best-selling albums of 2012 globally, each album selling over 5 million units worldwide. One Direction performed "Little Things" at the 2012 Royal Variety Performance in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II, and headlined a sold-out show at New York City's Madison Square Garden on 3 December 2012. In February 2013, One Direction released a cover version of "One Way or Another" and "Teenage Kicks", "One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks)", as the 2013 Comic Relief single. As part of their involvement with the UK charity, One Direction travelled to Ghana to volunteer at a children's hospital, visit a school and make donations.

In addition, the Official Charts Company revealed that One Direction had sold 2,425,000 records in the UK by February 2013.[83] One Direction embarked on their second concert tour in February 2013, the Take Me Home Tour. The concert tour consists of over 100 shows in Europe, North America and Australasia. Ticket sales reached 300,000 within a day of release in the UK and Ireland, which included a six-date sell-out at London's The O2 Arena. In the Australian and New Zealand markets, tickets grossed US$15.7 million, with all 190,000 tickets being sold for the eighteen shows to be held. The tour received critical acclaim from music critics who praised the band's live vocals and their performance abilities and was a commercial success, selling 1,635,000 tickets from 134 shows.

2013–present: Midnight Memories and This Is Us

One Direction: This Is Us, a 3D documentary and concert movie about the group directed by Morgan Spurlock and produced by Spurlock, Ben Winston, Adam Milano and Simon Cowell, was released by TriStar Pictures on 30 August 2013. The film features the song "Best Song Ever", released on 22 July 2013. "Best Song Ever" slated to serve as the lead single of the group's third studio album Midnight Memories. The film was a box office success, topping the UK and US box offices and grossing over $60 million worldwide. It is currently the fourth highest grossing concert movie.

On 16 May 2013, the band announced their first stadium tour, the Where We Are Tour, which is set to commence in April 2014. They plan to donate £200,000 of the tour's ticket sales to the Stand Up to Cancer charity.

 On 30 May 2013, the band announced a partnership with Office Depot on a limited-edition capsule collection of back to school supplies. They also confirmed that a portion of the proceeds from the alliance would go toward an anti-bullying educational program intended to promote kinder behavior in schools. The campaign has raised over one million dollars.

On 23 November and in support of Midnight Memories, the band participated in "1D Day", a day dedicated to One Direction fans. The day constituted of a landmark 7.5 hour socially interactive YouTube live-stream featuring live band performances, celebrity guests including, Simon Cowell, Cindy Crawford, Piers Morgan, Jerry Springer and many more. The event was unique not only due to its long runtime but the unprecedented use of social media whereby fans got to participate in the show interact directly with the band via Google+ Hangout.

Midnight Memories was released globally on 25 November 2013. The album was described by the band as edgier and as having a "slightly rockier tone" than their previous efforts. "Story of My Life" was revealed as the second single of the album with each member posting a photo from their childhood. Afterwards, the cover of the single was posted on the One Direction account. On 11 October 2013, One Direction revealed the cover and track listing for the album with the track listing being revealed through a "#MidnightMemoriesTrackQuiz" on Twitter. It was confirmed that the band would perform on both the American and British versions of The X Factor in order to promote their album.

The album debuted at number one in the UK and in the US, making them the first group to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 with its first three albums, and the second to reach the top after The Monkees in 1967.

 In December 2013, One Direction broke yet another UK sales record with the DVD and Blu-Ray release of their 3-D concert film "This is Us". In point of fact, nearly 270,000 copies of the movie were sold in the UK within three days of its release, beating the record previously set by Michael Jackson’s This Is It in 2010 by 10,000 copies. The group was named Top Global artists of 2013 by the IFPI due to strong digital downloads, physical albums, on-demand streams, and music videos.