Be still, my Directioner heart! It has been 13 (!!!) years since One Direction was founded on The X Factor, and the members have hit impressive strides over the course of their respective careers, both as a group and as solo artists. Case in point: Harry Styles took home a Grammy for Album of the Year in February (and his former bandmates congratulated him on the musical milestone 🥹).
Nearly seven years after their hiatus, the band—which was originally made up of five core members: Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, and Zayn Malik—is on its way to joining Spotify’s esteemed Billions Club. Their debut single, “What Makes You Beautiful” (which Harry still performs on tour, BTW), is nearing 1 billion streams on the platform. The track was released in 2011 after 1D earned third place on The X Factor, and it’s still considered a staple in their catalog of five studio albums.
The music video has already earned more than 1.4 billion views on YouTube, and at the time of this report, the song has 999,280,040 streams on Spotify (and somehow, I’m responsible for every single one of them!).
One of the band’s founding members, Liam Payne, reflected on the accomplishment with a throwback Instagram post on Wednesday, August 2. “Wow I just got told we’re about to make a billion streams on wmyb! Never in the making of this song so early in our career did I think I would be looking at those numbers what an achievement boys!” the “Strip That Down” singer wrote in his caption.
“I’m so lucky not only to share this with you but also this amazing fanbase,” he continued. “Everyday I’m learning about myself and what was all of this for but now when I listen back and think of the power we all had including you as a fanbase I’m so happy that for 5 years we made such a great soundtrack to life for myself and everyone who got to listen sharing laughter pain and everything in between miss you boys. Lots of love me x”
Sooo… does this mean a 1D reunion tour could be in the books after all? Asking for a friend (and, you know, because some of the boys were reportedly spotted in the studio recently 👀).
Assistant News Editor
Sam is an assistant news editor at Cosmo, covering all things pop culture, entertainment, and celebrity news. She previously covered those same topics along with health, lifestyle, and beauty at Seventeen. When she isn’t draping her cheeks in blush, you can probably find her live-tweeting awards shows or making SwiftToks.