Louis, the eldest of the group, was only 24 when they officially went on hiatus, which seems ridiculous to think about now. The five years that they were together felt like such a whirlwind that I’d forgotten just how young these boys were when they were thrown together. In fact, they had such a huge impact on pop culture that they were still winning awards as a band over a year after they’d officially broken up – sorry – gone “on hiatus”.

They were goofy and clumsy and didn’t follow the rigid structures or rules of the boybands that came before, but they ticked enough boxes to cement themselves as the world’s biggest boyband, if only for a while.

Is that painful for me to admit? Only slightly.Īfter being catapulted to fame on The X Factor in 2010, it felt like no one could escape the names Zayn, Harry, Niall, Liam, and Louis in the five years that followed. It’s been five years since One Direction went on hiatus, meaning they’ve spent as much time apart as they did together. One Direction on the set of the Best Song Ever music video, photographed by Cal Aurand

One direction albums list