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One Direction (commonly abbreviated to 1D) are a British-American pop boyband based in London, consisting of members Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Justin Bieber. Bieber joined as a touring member only on March 26th 2015 when original member Zayn Malik announced his departure the day before.

The group signed to Simon Cowell's Syco Records after forming and finishing third on the seventh series of The X Factor in 2010. Propelled to international success by social media, One Direction's four albums, Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013) and Four (2014) broke records, topped charts in most major markets, and generated hit singles including "What Makes You Beautiful", "Live While We're Young", "Story of My Life" and "Steal My Girl".

Their achievements include five Brit Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, eleven MTV Europe Music Awards, and nineteen Teen Choice Awards out of nineteen nominations, among many others. According to Nick Gatfield, the chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment UK, One Direction represented a $50 million business empire by June 2012. They were proclaimed 2012's "Top New Artist" by Billboard. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, by April 2013, they had an estimated personal combined wealth of £25 million ($41.2m) making them the second-wealthiest musicians in the UK under 30 years of age. In 2014, Forbes listed them the second-highest earning celebrities under 30, with the group earning an estimated $75 million from June 2013 to June 2014.

After the release of Four, One Direction became the first band in the U.S. Billboard 200 history to have their first four albums debut at number one. Their third album, Midnight Memories, was the biggest-selling album worldwide of 2013 despite being released in later November. In 2014, Billboard named One Direction the top artist of the year. In March 2015, Malik departed the group, citing his desire to live as a "normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight", leaving the band to continue as a four-piece to record their fifth studio album but Bieber joined the European and US tour dates for their On The Road Again Tour to replace Malik.

2014-15: Four and line-up change
In April 2014, the group confirmed they had started work on their fourth album with Good Charlotte reportedly working with Payne and Tomlinson on writing tracks for the album. Payne claimed that the album would be "edgier" and the majority of tracks would be written by the group themselves. On 21 July, One Direction announced an upcoming concert film as an initial home media release titled One Direction: Where We Are - The Concert Film, which documents the 28 and 29 June 2014 concerts that took place in San Siro Stadium during their Where We Are Tour. After the announcement, the band announced the film will also have a limited 10–11 October 2014 international cinema release before its home media release in November 2014. An autobiography book Who We Are was released on 25 September 2014.

On 8 September, One Direction announced their fourth studio album to be titled Four, with a worldwide release day set for 17 November 2014. As part of the announcement, one of the songs from the album, "Fireproof" was released for free download for 24 hours on their official website. On 14 September, it was announced the album's first official single "Steal My Girl" would be released on 29 September. The music video was released on 24 October. On 28 October, it was reported that another One Direction music video was in production, suggesting that another single would be released. It was later confirmed that the second single of the album would be "Night Changes". The track was released on 14 November, three days before the album's release. Four was released on 17 November, topping the Billboard 200 and the UK Album Chart once again. On 22 November, it was reported that tour manager Paul Higgins, who has been with the group since its formation, has parted ways with the band.

On 18 March 2015, Malik performed his final date with the group on their worldwide On The Road Again Tour in Hong Kong. Following this tour date, he was signed off with stress and flew back to the UK with the remaining four members continuing in his absence. A week later on March 25, it was confirmed that Malik had quit the group and would not return to complete the tour. The following day, it was announced that Justin Bieber would join the group's tour replacing Malik from the June 5 show in Cardiff, Wales. Horan, Payne, Styles and Tomlinson will complete the remaining dates of the Asian, South African and UAE dates as a quartet.