Looking at everything One Direction achieved in their time together, it's hard to believe that they were only active for six years. What's even harder to fathom is that they've now been on hiatus just as long — but luckily for fans, that time has proven fruitful for Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson.
Each member has released at least one studio album as a solo artist, and they have all dipped into several other ventures within fashion, producing, and mentoring rising stars. Horan is the latest to deliver more solo music, unveiling his third album, The Show, on June 9.
Through all those efforts, the quintet has kept One Direction's legacy not only alive, but thriving. While together, they were a pop phenomenon who sold an approximate 70 million records, but their solo careers have allowed them to showcase their true personalities. With that, lofty achievements came in tow — GRAMMY Awards, sold-out tours, and even more chart-topping hits — as well as the certainty that One Direction will never fully diminish (see Styles' roaring rendition of "What Makes You Beautiful" or Horan's sweet performance of "Story of My Life").
From Malik's introspective Mind of Mine to Horan's latest set, GRAMMY.com breaks down all of One Direction's solo endeavors.
Zayn Malik
Soon after his sudden departure from the group in 2015, Zayn Malik signed with RCA Records. His debut album, Mind of Mine, came out on March 25, 2016 — exactly one year after he left the band.
Mind of Mine sees Malik in a new musical direction, leaning into his R&B roots and soulful voice while also taking a more risqué approach in his songwriting. Despite the stark difference, the album topped several charts upon debut, including the U.S. and the U.K., even helping Malik become the first British male singer to top the Billboard 200 with his first album. (Lead single "Pillowtalk" also debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the first time a U.K. artist topped the chart with their first single.)
Malik quickly proved to be a sought-after collaborator, with Chris Brown, Snakehips and M.I.A. all recruiting him for singles in 2016. At the end of that year, he issued his biggest collab to date, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" with Taylor Swift for the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack. The song scored Malik his second massive hit on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 2.
As fans eagerly awaited his second album, Malik delivered two more major collabs, "Still Got Time" featuring PartyNextDoor and "Dusk Till Dawn" with Sia. After facing several delays, Icarus Falls arrived in December 2018. Comprising 27 songs across two disks, the album featured six singles ("Let Me," "Entertainer," "Sour Diesel," "Too Much" featuring Timbaland, "Fingers," "No Candle No Light" featuring Nicki Minaj), though none had the impact of "Pillowtalk."
After working on a few other collaborations — including a cover of "A Whole New World" with Zhavia Ward for 2019's Aladdin remake — Malik's third studio album, the utterly-personal Nobody Is Listening, came out in 2021. He teased the project through singles "Better" and "Vibez," and designed the album artwork himself. Later that year, he shared a now-deleted Dropbox link to Yellow Tape — a collection of three controversial hip-hop songs that showed another side of his musicality.
Malik has also been an influential name in fashion, modeling for brands like Versace and Penshoppe, and designing his own product lines for Giuseppe Zanotti and Versus (Versace). He also wrote an autobiography in 2016, Zayn.
Though he has been fairly quiet in 2022 and 2023, Malik has shared photos from the studio, and hopped on a posthumous remix of Jimi Hendrix's "Angel" last year. And while he's eight years removed from 1D, he hasn't completely forgotten his time in the band — even sharing an instantly viral clip of him singing his fan-favorite note from "You & I" in 2022.
Niall Horan
Niall Horan signed with Capitol Records and released his first solo single, "This Town," in September 2016. Followed by "Slow Hands," and "Too Much to Ask," Horan released his debut LP, Flicker, in October 2017 — just as "Slow Hands" hit No. 1 on Billboard's Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay charts. A mix of soft rock and straightforward pop, the album helped Horan become the third 1D member in a row to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (after Malik and Styles, more on the latter later).
In support of the release, Horan embarked on two world tours: Flicker Sessions, which started in August 2017 and was held in smaller, intimate venues, and 2018's Flicker World Tour, which featured 82 shows across North and Latin America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia.
Horan's second studio album, Heartbreak Weather, led by single "Nice to Meet Ya," came out in March 2020 and topped the charts in the U.K. and Ireland, while reaching number four in the U.S. However, the COVID-19 pandemic stalled his ambitious touring plans, and he decided to use his downtime for collaboration. He teamed up with Anne-Marie for two singles, "Our Song" and a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Everywhere," and hopped on a version of Ashe's "Moral of the Story," But perhaps his most beloved collab is with his best friend Lewis Capaldi — a bromance that started with Horan's admiration for the singer and developed into live performances together, plenty of interactions on social media, and a Guinness-sponsored TV special, Homecoming: The Road to Mullingar, out in 2022.
In early 2023, Horan became a judge on NBC's "The Voice," and recently confirmed his return to the next season of the show this fall. Two weeks after wrapping his first "Voice" season, Horan released his third studio album, The Show, on June 9. A fruitful experimentation of folk melodies and modern synths, it showcases how much his songwriting has matured since Heartbreak Weather.
Horan will perform at festivals across Europe and Asia in 2023, including Lollapalooza Paris and Summer Sonic Tokyo. He'll kick off The Show: Live on Tour in his native Ireland in February 2024, and will hit cities in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and North America through July 2024.
Louis Tomlinson
Louis Tomlinson was the biggest contributor to One Direction's songwriting, with credits on over 30 songs in their discography. His passion for music production extended to an auxiliary participation on 2015's "The X Factor," which in 2018 turned into a fixed position as a judge and winning mentor on the fifteenth series of the show.
As for Tomlinson's own solo music, he made his debut with the Steve Aoki-assisted single "Just Hold On" in December of 2016. Before releasing his debut LP, Walls, in January of 2020, the singer focused on collaborations and singles. Through a pop-punk verve, Tomlinson began to establish his own post-1D style with singles like 2017's "Just Like You" and the minimalistic "Back To You" with Bebe Rexha — his biggest hit to date, with more than 1 billion combined streams on Spotify and YouTube. Some other singles, like the touching tribute to his late mother, "Two of Us," and the rock-edged "Kill My Mind," were included in Walls.
In 2021, he created and curated The Away From Home Festival, a one-day festival first held in London that year and followed by a 2022 edition in Malaga. In 2023, the event will return for its third run in August at Lido di Camaiore, Italy. Among the lineup are UK rising indie names like Blossoms and The Cribs.
Tomlinson's second album, Faith in The Future, was released at the end of 2022 and peaked at No. 1 in the U.K., marking his first top-charting album in the country as a soloist. Supported by singles "Bigger Than Me," "Out of My System," and "Silver Tongues," it furthered Tomlinson's explorations into indie rock and Britpop.
In March of 2023, Tomlinson released All Of Those Voices, a soul-baring documentary where he talked about his fears upon One Direction's hiatus, grief, fatherhood, and the struggles of fame. Currently, Tomlinson is on a World Tour through North America, U.K., and Europe.
Harry Styles
After signing with Columbia Records, Harry Styles made his solo debut in April 2017 with the power ballad "Sign of the Times." One month later, his eponymous debut album came to life. A commercial and critical success, it topped charts in several countries upon release, including the U.S. and the U.K album tallies.
From the get-go, Styles' solo appeal was apparent. After immediately selling out his first run of solo shows that fall, he plotted a world tour playing arenas in 2018 — all of which sold out. That success translated to the release of his second album, 2019's Fine Line. The album's first-week sales were the biggest ever for a British male soloist since 1991, when Nielsen began tracking sales electronically.
While singles "Adore You" and "Falling" had solid traction, it was "Watermelon Sugar" that solidified his place as a solo superstar. Not only did the track earn Styles his first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100, but it also won the singer his first GRAMMY in 2021 (for Best Pop Solo Performance).
Then came the lauded Harry's House, the album that cemented Styles as a vanguard artist and performer. Lead single "As It Was" foreshadowed the gargantuan success that was to come, topping the Hot 100 for 15 weeks — the longest-running U.S. No. 1 by a U.K. artist. Harry's House debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and was the fourth best-selling album of 2022 with more than 2 million equivalent album units. The album also went on to win Best Pop Vocal Album and the coveted Album Of The Year at the 2023 GRAMMYs.
Styles's ongoing sold-out Love On Tour, which started in 2021 in support of both Fine Line and Harry's House, has also set unprecedented records. Last year, he held mini-residencies in both Los Angeles's Kia Forum and New York's Madison Square Garden, and became the third musical artist to earn a MSG banner after selling out 15 consecutive nights at the venue.
Styles has also made an impact through his daring fashion sense, modeling for brands like Gucci and becoming the first man to appear solo on the cover of Vogue in 2019. He has also ventured into acting, appearing in movies like 2017's Dunkirk and 2022's Don't Worry Darling and My Policeman.
Liam Payne
Credited as one of One Direction's main songwriters, Liam Payne started to venture into his own musicality by remixing tracks back in 2014, under the aliases "Payno" and "Big Payno." He signed with Republic Records in October 2016, unveiling his debut solo single, "Strip That Down" (featuring Migos' Quavo) in May 2017. With lyrics that reinforced his new journey ("You know I used to be in 1D"), the track peaked at No. 10 on the Hot 100 and spent two weeks atop Billboard's Pop Airplay chart.
Marked by collaborations with artists that range from Rita Ora ("For You", off of Fifty Shades Freed's soundtrack), to A Boogie wit da Hoodie ("Stack It Up"), to J Balvin ("Familiar"), Payne's solo career is one of 1D's most diverse, exploring genres that go from hip-hop to electronic music.
After a 2018 EP, First Time, Payne dropped his debut studio album, the long-awaited LP1, in December 2019. Including all of his previous singles, the record is a portrait of the singer's prolificness and versatility.
While he has been less active musically in recent years, Payne delivered another dance collab in 2020 ( "Midnight" with Alesso), a couple of Christmas tracks (including the Dixie D'Amelio team-up "Naughty List,"), and a song for the 2021 animated movie Ron's Gone Wrong, "Sunshine." Outside of music, Payne was also named the first global ambassador for fashion brand Hugo Boss, and designed two of their capsule collections. In a recent interview with iFL TV, Payne mentioned working on a new album for 2023.
It’s still unclear when the much-awaited One Direction reunion will happen, but the quintet's individual forays continue to bloom, and exciting opportunities lie ahead for each of the members. Through their diverse repertoire and newfound artistries — from Styles's buoyant strikes to Tomlinson's rock affinities — one thing is certain: the 1D members might follow multiple directions now, but they aren't stopping anytime soon.
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