One Direction are a British-Irish boyband consisting of members Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. They signed to Simon Cowell's record label Syco Records^[1] after being formed and placing third in the seventh seriesof The X Factor. They later signed in North America to Columbia Records.^[2]

In November 2011, One Direction released their debut album Up All Night, which became the fastest-selling debut album of 2011 in the UK.^[3] In 2012, it debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, making One Direction the first UK band in history to debut at number one with their first album.^[4][5] Up All Night spawned three UK Singles Chart top ten singles — "What Makes You Beautiful", "Gotta Be You", and "One Thing". In 2012, "What Makes You Beautiful" won the award for Best British Single at the 2012 BRIT Awards.^[6]

One Direction's World Tour is set for 2013, with tickets already grossing $15.7 million for their Australian and New Zealand dates.^[7] One Direction have endorsements withPokémon, Nokia, HarperCollins and Hasbro. They have also been noted for resurge of the boyband and have even been labelled as the new British Invasion.