Niall Horan's claim to fame as a member of One Direction
Happy birthday, Niall Horan. Today, the One Directioner turned 22.
The blonde boyband member came to fame after an X Factor solo audition in the U.K. which introduced him to Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson. The show's producers pieced the five together to create a boyband that would later be named One Direction. Little did they know, their immediate and resounding popularity would catapult them to a level of global success the world had yet to see.
One Direction finished third in the reality TV singing competition and immediately began working on music. The group immediately signed to Simon Cowell's management firm, Syco Entertainment, and record label, Syco Records. The 55-year-old music mogul has managed their entire career.
In February of 2015, Horan and his 1D bandmates embarked on the On The Road Again Tour to promote their most recent studio album "Four" after which they plan take a much-needed hiatus.
The boy band's most recent single "Drag Me Down" leads off their yet-to-be-titled fifth studio album. This will be the band's first project without Zayn Malik, who left the group to begin a solo career. Malik signed to RCA Records and is reportedly in the studio working on new music as a solo artist.
One Direction has released four studio albums thus far, "Up All Night," "Take Me Home," "Midnight Memories," and "Four" with the impending due date of their fifth album.
"Four" debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 chart selling a whopping 387,000 copies in its opening week in November of 2014. One Direction has sold over 16 million albums worldwide and are the only group to debut at No. 1 with their first four albums.
Click through for photos of One Direction through the years:
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