Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry and Louis – even without the surnames, any teenage girl would instantly identify that this is one of the world’s biggest boybands, One Direction. The story of their success is one of turning defeat in to victory. The boys initially competed in the hit reality music show The X Factor as individuals, but the judges didn’t feel that they were good enough so they reformed as group on a suggestion from the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, Nicole. It was then that the pop band began to refer to themselves as One Direction.

They then progressed to the latter stages of the competition, but despite ending up in third place, they were offered a multi million pound record deal. After a brief tour with the other contestants, the band began working on their material and success soon followed. Their first 3 singles, ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, ‘Gotta Be You’ and ‘One Thing’ all reached the top 10 in the UK singles chart, and they also managed to break in to the US top 30 with the initial track. All the songs featured on their debut album, ‘Up All Night’

Awards soon followed including BRITS and Music Video Awards, and the fanbase began to grow as a result of the band began touring in support of the album. A recording of one of the performances was turned in to DVD which sold millions and continued to raise the profile of One Direction.

As of September 2012 the band were recording their second album titled ‘Take Me Home’ and had just released the lead single from the album – ‘Live While We’re Young’. The band have been able to leverage their popularity to create a range of products to which they have applied their name. Everything from books to toy figures and mobile ringtones have been branded One Direction and sold millions of units to their loyal fanbase.

As the band continue to tour and release more material, we can only expect them to continue to grow in popularity and become one of the biggest pop bands in music history and there is only One Direction that they are heading and that is up.

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  Olly Murs
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