Happy Birthday, One Direction! In honor of the band’s 10th anniversary, the group released a video featuring behind-the scenes clips from their days on The X Factor, to their last single ‘History’.
For your tenth anniversary, you’re traditionally supposed to give gifts of tin or aluminum. Yet, what One Direction gave their fans in honor of their 10th anniversary is a statement of a love that’s stronger than steel that, to Directioners everywhere, is worth more than gold. The band – Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, and former member Zayn Malik – celebrated a decade together on July 23, and did so with a special video. It featured behind-the-scenes clips from 2010 to 2016, beginning with shots of the boys filming their first music video for “What Makes You Beautiful”. Fans were taken back in time as they watched the five teenagers take selfies at The X Factor studios and marvel at the hundreds of fans who turned out to their events. Little did they know, that was only the beginning!
The video then featured clips from each “era” of the band, showing BTS videos as the guys filmed their “Live While We’re Young” music video from the Take Me Home album, before moving onto the Midnight Memories era of the band. “3 years into our career and we’re doing stadiums. I can’t believe it,” Niall says in the video, while clips from their appearance on Saturday Night Live played. The video was a true love letter to their fans, and as they moved onto the Four album, Harry said, “We’ve got more of a grasp of who we want to be as a band.” Louis also addressed Zayn leaving the band. “There are things that have made this year hard at times,” he said. “But we bonded together and that’s the sign of good mates.” Someone get us the tissues!
One Direction, through the public relations company Simon Jones PR, announced that they were celebrating their tenth anniversary with a “celebration video especially made for their fans.” This video promised to “document highlights of the band’s career, from forming on The X Factor to releasing their single ‘History’, including clips from music videos, performances and candid behind the scenes video content. And of course, the special relationship they have with their fans.”
Along with the video, 1D promised an anniversary website, one boasting “an immersive and exciting interactive fan experience” that would take the form “a timeline charting the history of the group, from the first audition right up to the start of their hiatus. It will host an archive of music videos, artwork, TV performances, behind-the-scenes and rarely-seen content, all in one place.” In addition to all that, “reformatted EPs” would be released across all the major streaming platforms, sharing “b-sides and rare songs, remixes, live recordings, and acoustic versions of tracks grouped into one place for fans to rediscover.”
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic dashed any plans for massive public concerts, the odds that Harry, 26, Niall, 27, Louis, 28, Liam, 26, and Zayn, 27, would share the stage for this anniversary were low. Liam, who Rolling Stone says was the one 1D member the most hopeful for some kind of reunion, told James Corden in April that he was “not allowed to say too much obviously, because I’d be giving it away. But we’ve been speaking a lot more at the moment. I think we’re all feeling that ten-year [mark] is a very special moment.”
While the four remaining members have remained cordial since their 2016 hiatus, things haven’t been that warm between 1D and Zayn Malik. The “Pillow Talk” singer famously departed the group in 2015, and matters have been mildly contentious between Zayn and One Direction since. Despite the years of bad blood, an insider told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY that the group was trying to get Zayn on board with their plans, whether it was a “performance” or with releasing new music. In the best of times, Zayn probably would have to miss out on the reunion. After all, he and Gigi Hadid have a baby on the way.