Everyone knows that the British pop group One Direction had its humble beginnings in the British music competition reality show “The X Factor.” Everyone also knows that it was Simon Cowell, the sarcastic and overly criticizing judge from “American Idol” who eventually moved to the British reality show as a mentor who put the five members together to form One Direction.
The rest, as every music fan knows it, is history. One Direction has become a global phenomenon and went on to become the most popular boy band since, producing a total of five albums in five years.
But their rampage to the top was momentarily halted when one of their members, Zayn Malik, decided to go solo last year and their manager Simon Cowell decided to rebrand the group from a quintet to a quartet.
Despite the departure of Zayn Malik, One Direction’s fifth studio album still did well, a clear indication that it was not the mere individual talents that fans are rooting for in 1D but the collective talents that the group has.
Shifting to individual talents
All of the five members of One Direction are talented singers in their own right and can really stand on their own as far as singing is concerned.
So it was kind of expected that during the break on the band’s scheduled tour or performances, each of them would start their own pre-occupations.
For a while, everyone thought that it would be Harry Styles who will be the first to leave the group as aside from knowing how to sing, he is also a songwriter and he also likes to act before the camera.
He also dated Taylor Swift for a brief moment so the guy has the right credentials to move out of One Direction and still remain popular.
But as it turned out, Zayn Malik was the first to go. The rest of the members in Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson stayed and remained as One Direction.
Everybody’s going solo
Over the past couple of months, after the end of their latest world concert tour, each member of One Direction tried their luck out in going solo, inspired most likely by the development of Zayn Malik’s career.
The solo moves are also triggering speculations that One Direction is breaking up for good although it remains to be seen if it will happen very soon.
Thus far, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Niall Horan have already made their own music and Louis Tomlinson is expected to follow suit soon.
However, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, and Niall Horan, instead of cutting their respective singles under Simon Cowell’s Syco record label, they decided to do it with somebody else much to the chagrin of Cowell naturally.
So when Niall Horan recently expressed his intention to perform and promote his debut single on “The X Factor” to say that he is going back to his roots, Simon Cowell was up in arms and blocked it, reports The Sun of UK.
Simon was reportedly annoyed with both Liam and Niall for looking elsewhere for solo record deals when he was with them right from the start of their careers.
One show insider revealed that Niall has not been invited to sing on any of the remaining live shows of “The X Factor” despite having a big release and it is not an oversight but really intentional.
The source went on to explain that Cowell really thought that the One Direction boys would show loyalty to him after he mentored them on the show and made them the huge global success that they are now. Unfortunately, they went behind his back so Simon is not going to do them any more favors.
Artists love performing live on “The X-Factor” because of its eight million viewership base. As a result, Niall’s single is reportedly on the way down the chart but Simon does not feel he is missing out.
Niall actually signed with Universal Records and released “This Town” last month. It went all the way to No. 9 on the US chart but is now at No. 25.