As One Direction celebrate their anniversary, we’re throwing it back to their original auditions.
The group – originally made up of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik – rose to fame on The X Factor in 2010.
They went on to sell more than 200 million records across the world before going on a hiatus in 2016 a year after Zayn left the band.
It all started a decade ago now when the five piece all auditioned separately on The X Factor…
Liam Payne
Liam first auditioned for The X Factor in 2008, when – at the age of 14 – he made it as far as Simon Cowell’s house in Barbados. However, Simon believed he wasn’t ready for the competition. With two years to improve on his voice, Liam returned with a performance of Cry Me A River which got four yeses.
Harry Styles
In 2010, Harry was the lead singer of his band White Eskimo, but decided to see if he could go it alone. The 16-year-old said he had always wanted to sing, but ha been too young to enter.
He performed Isn’t She Lovely by Stevie Wonder and got a no from Louis Walsh. With Simon and Nicole Scherzinger saying yes, Harry made it to bootcamp and the rest is history.
Niall Horan
Back in 2010, Niall appeared on The X Factor where he spoke about being compared to Justin Bieber. He performed Ne-Yo’s So Sick which got yeses from Simon and Louis but a no from Cheryl leaving guest judge Katy Perry with the casting vote.
“You’re in, don’t let us down!” Katy said as she gave Niall his shot in the next round where 1D were formed.
Louis Tomlinson
We didn’t ever see much of Louis Tomlinson’s first audition other than a 30 second clip on ITV2. It revealed he performed Hey There Delilah by the Plain White T’s to get three yeses from Simon, Nicole and Louis.
Zayn Malik
Much like Louis, Zayn Malik’s original X Factor audition didn’t get a lot of air time. ITV2 aired a short clip back in 2010 showing him perform Mario’s Let Me Love You to get a spot in bootcamp.
And that’s how One Direction started!
