“Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson were all eliminated as solo performers on the TV talent show before they were brought back to form a group,” the New Zealand Herald wrote of The X Factor. “Each of them auditioned individually,” HuffPost UK says, and they went out “during the boot camp stages in 2010,” 1News says. One of them had been there before: “In 2008, at the tender age of 14, Liam Payne first stepped onto The X Factor stage,” Heart recalls, and “Simon Cowell, recognizing Payne’s talent but also his youth, encouraged him to return in two years’ time.”
In July 2010 the Daily Mirror reported on “the Boot Camp at Wembley Arena on July 22.” “After failing to impress with their dance abilities,” HuffPost UK says, all five were cut. But in footage released in 2022, “judges Nicole Scherzinger, Simon Cowell, and Louis Walsh sift through photos of discarded contestants,” the New Zealand Herald says; they “shuffled through the headshots of the rejected male contestants,” Rappler says. “Let’s do an imaginary boy band instead of just saying no,” Scherzinger says, as 1News reports it.
Then “the judges called them back as a newly-formed group,” Rappler says. Asked who came up with the name One Direction, NME reports, “Harry replied, ‘I think it was me.’” On the live shows, “One Direction would later finish third in the competition, following season winner Matt Cardle and runner-up Rebecca Ferguson,” Rappler says, and BBC News reported in December 2010 that Matt Cardle “beat Rebecca Ferguson and One Direction to the prize.” “Despite their loss, Cowell immediately signed the boyband to his label, Syco Music.”
On Wednesday, March 21, 2012, the Official Charts Company reported, One Direction “made US chart history this morning … when Up All Night knocked Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball off the US top spot,” becoming “the first British group to debut at Number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with their first album.” Guinness World Records says “Up All Night debuted at No.1 with first-week sales of 176,000 on 31 March 2012” and that the record “betters the US chart starts of both The Beatles”: their first album to chart in America, Meet the Beatles!, “debuted at No.92.”
“One Direction (UK) are the only group to debut at No.1 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart with their first four releases,” Guinness World Records says: after Up All Night came “Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013) and the appropriately titled Four (2014).”
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- These five singers were all rejected, then did what the Beatles never did. New Zealand Herald: “Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson were all eliminated as solo performers on the TV talent show before they were brought back to form a group.” Official Charts Company: “One Direction have beaten the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Spice Girls, Coldplay, Radiohead and Queen by becoming the first British group to debut at Number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with their first album.” 19
- The five were Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik. New Zealand Herald: “Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson were all eliminated as solo performers.” 1
- In 2010, each auditioned alone for The X Factor. HuffPost UK: “each of them auditioned individually.” 1News: “during the boot camp stages in 2010.” 42
- Liam had been turned away at 14, and told to come back in two years. Heart: “In 2008, at the tender age of 14, Liam Payne first stepped onto The X Factor stage”; “Simon Cowell, recognizing Payne’s talent but also his youth, encouraged him to return in two years’ time.” 5
- Then at bootcamp, all five were cut. New Zealand Herald: “all eliminated as solo performers.” 1News: “the boot camp stages in 2010.” HuffPost UK: “After failing to impress with their dance abilities.” Daily Mirror (July 12, 2010): “the Boot Camp at Wembley Arena on July 22.” 1246
- But the judges were sorting photos of the rejects. New Zealand Herald: “judges Nicole Scherzinger, Simon Cowell, and Louis Walsh sift through photos of discarded contestants.” Rappler: “shuffled through the headshots of the rejected male contestants.” 13
- “Let’s do an imaginary boy band instead of just saying no,” said judge Nicole Scherzinger. 1News: “‘Let’s do an imaginary boy band instead of just saying no,’ replies Scherzinger.” 2
- All five were called back as a group. Rappler: “before the judges called them back as a newly-formed group.” 3
- Harry thinks he came up with the name, One Direction. NME, on who came up with the name: “Harry replied, ‘I think it was me.’” 7
- On the live shows, they came only third. Rappler: “One Direction would later finish third in the competition, following season winner Matt Cardle and runner-up Rebecca Ferguson.” BBC News (December 13, 2010): Matt Cardle “beat Rebecca Ferguson and One Direction to the prize.” 38
- But Simon Cowell signed them anyway. Rappler: “Despite their loss, Cowell immediately signed the boyband to his label, Syco Music.” Official Charts Company: “Simon Cowell, who signed the band to his Syco record label.” HuffPost UK: “signed them to his label after the series ended.” 394
- In March 2012, their first album debuted at No. 1 in America. Official Charts Company: “made US chart history this morning (Wednesday, March 21) when Up All Night knocked Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball off the US top spot.” Guinness World Records: “Up All Night debuted at No.1 with first-week sales of 176,000 on 31 March 2012.” 910
- No British group had done that, not even the Beatles. Guinness World Records: “became the first UK-based group to make a chart-topping bow on the US Billboard 200 albums chart”; it “betters the US chart starts of both The Beatles (debut album Introducing… The Beatles initially failed to chart in the US and their first album to chart, Meet the Beatles!, debuted at No.92 …).” 109
- Then their next three albums did it too. Guinness World Records: “One Direction (UK) are the only group to debut at No.1 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart with their first four releases”; “Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013) and the appropriately titled Four (2014).” 11
- Rejected one by one, together they made history. New Zealand Herald: “all eliminated as solo performers on the TV talent show before they were brought back to form a group.” Guinness World Records: “became the first UK-based group to make a chart-topping bow on the US Billboard 200 albums chart”; “the only group to debut at No.1 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart with their first four releases.” 11011
Sources
- The X Factor releases new video revealing moment One Direction was formed (July 25, 2022) New Zealand Herald
- New X Factor vision reveals moment One Direction was formed (July 25, 2022) 1News (TVNZ)
- X Factor releases unseen footage of One Direction formation (July 2022) Rappler
- 10 Years Of One Direction: Their Story In Pictures (Daniel Welsh, July 23, 2020) HuffPost UK
- Liam Payne’s X Factor auditions from 2008 and 2010 remembered (October 2024) Heart
- Cheryl Cole cancels X Factor Boot Camp and V Festival appearances (Kate McMahon, July 12, 2010) Daily Mirror
- Harry Styles reveals he came up with the name for One Direction (2017) NME
- X Factor winner Matt Cardle hailed by his Essex family (December 13, 2010) BBC News
- One Direction make US chart history after debuting at Number 1 (March 21, 2012) Official Charts Company
- First UK group to debut at No.1 in USA with debut album Guinness World Records
- First group to debut at No.1 with their first four albums (USA) Guinness World Records
Notes
Whose idea the band was: Simon Cowell has claimed it (Uproxx reports that in 2013 he said, “It was my idea [to put you guys together].”), while the footage released in 2022 shows Nicole Scherzinger proposing the “imaginary boy band.” The page quotes only her words on that footage and says nothing about whose idea it was.
“Never did”: the record is for a debut album entering the Billboard 200 at No. 1 (Guinness World Records, the Official Charts Company). The Beatles later had many US No. 1 albums, so the Short says “No British group had done that,” and the headline says “first album.” “Did it too”: Guinness notes that the Monkees and the Kingston Trio also reached No. 1 with their first four albums, but climbed there; One Direction are the only group whose first four debuted at No. 1.
Liam’s 2008 audition: sources differ on the stage at which he went out, so the Short says only “turned away at fourteen.” Left out: the members’ ages in 2010, practice stories found only on fan sites, the band’s later changes, and everything outside their 2010–2014 music career.
One Direction’s members are living people, apart from Liam Payne, who died on October 16, 2024. Only their music career, chart records and published reporting are used here, and nothing about their private lives; Nicole Scherzinger, Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh are named only for the judging, and Matt Cardle and Rebecca Ferguson only for the result.
Pictures: no free photo or video shows the 2010 auditions, bootcamp, the judges’ photo sorting or the live shows, and no TV frames are used. Every photo of the band is from after Harry Styles, the youngest, turned 18 in February 2012. The five are on stage on the Take Me Home Tour in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on July 2, 2013 (three photos by Melissa Rose, cropped), and on the Where We Are Tour in Chile on April 30, 2014 (javierosh); Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne are at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland, on May 28, 2014 (vagueonthehow). Harry Styles is singing on the Up All Night Tour in San Jose, California, in June 2012 (karina3094), three months after the chart record; at MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, on August 5, 2014 (Ianthebush); and on the German TV show Wetten, dass..? in Graz, Austria, on November 8, 2014 (Kurt Kulac). Liam Payne is seen on May 26, 2014 (vagueonthehow), not at his 2008 audition. Simon Cowell is at Greater Together LA on May 20, 2026 (UKinUSA, the British Consulate-General in Los Angeles), and Nicole Scherzinger in Hollywood on August 14, 2012 (Glenn Francis); neither photo is from The X Factor. Wembley Arena, the 2010 bootcamp venue, is seen on March 30, 2016, when it was called The SSE Arena (Des Blenkinsopp). The Beatles are at their press conference at Schiphol Airport on June 5, 1964 (Harry Pot, Anefo), left to right Jimmie Nicol, Ringo Starr’s stand-in on that tour, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon, cropped as in the Short.
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 1 'Of Foreign Lands and Peoples' (Musopen, public domain); Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition: IV. Bydlo (piano) (Musopen, public domain); Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 'From the New World': II. Largo (Musopen, public domain).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
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