User:Junaid Aston Malik/One Direction X-Factor Journey

One Direction is a five-member boy band made up of Liam Payne, 17, a music technology student at City of Wolverhampton College (born in Wolverhampton on 29 August 1993) Louis Tomlinson, 18, (from Doncaster), a student at Hall Cross School Niall Horan, 17, (from Mullingar, Westmeath, Ireland), a student at Coláiste Mhuire, Mullingar. Harry Styles, 16, (from Holmes Chapel, Cheshire) a student at Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School and Zayn Malik, 17 (from East Bowling, Bradford). They applied as solo candidates to the competition, but failed to qualify for the Boys category. The judges, after a suggestion by Cowell, put them in a band, qualifying for the Groups category.

Payne had auditioned in 2008 to The X Factor's fifth series when he was 14 and reached judges' houses, but Cowell thought he was not ready for the competition and asked him to come back in two years. This time Cowell chose him to be part of One Direction. Styles was the lead singer for the band White Eskimo with band members lead guitarist Haydn Morris, bass guitarist Nick Clough and drummer Will Sweeney. Malik was noted for becoming nervous in bootcamp, and when he was told he had to dance, he decided to remain backstage, effectively running the risk of elimination. Cowell noticed Malik missing from the dance routine and went backstage and convinced him to return.

For their qualifying song, and their first ever song as a group, One Direction sang an acoustic version of "Torn". In week 1 of the live shows, they performed "Viva la Vida" and were safe for the week. Week 2 was "Musical Heroes", and One Direction sang "My Life Would Suck Without You", which received positive comments from the judges; Minogue called them "five heartthrobs" and praised their performance, Cole called them "cute" and Cowell said "You are the most exciting pop band in the country right now." They sang "Nobody Knows" in week 3, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in week 4, "Kids in America" in week 5, ["Something About the Way You Look Tonight" in week 6 and "All You Need Is Love" in week 7. They were safe each week, never once being in the bottom two. For weeks 8 and 9, they performed two songs: "Summer of 69" and "You Are So Beautiful" in week 8 and "Only Girl (In the World)" and "Chasing Cars "in week 9. They were safe both times, making it to the final December. In week 10, the boyband performed "Your Song". After performing "Torn" in the final, One Direction finished in third place