New unseen footage from earlier on in One Direction‘s formation during The X Factor has been revealed.
- READ MORE: Niall Horan: “The last time I wrote an album I did less thinking”
Yesterday (August 30), The X Factor UK published a video containing 30 minutes worth of previously unseen footage from the boyband’s time on the show, including the quintet covering a Kelly Clarkson song for judge Simon Cowell.
In the footage, One Direction are seen practising Natalie Imbruglia’s ‘Torn’, and later on in the clip, put on a special performance for Simon Cowell to see if they would have made it to the live finals of The X Factor.
Below, watch One Direction cover Kelly Clarkson’s ‘My Life Would Suck Without You’ for Simon Cowell before being told that they’d made it through to the finals.
One Direction formed in 2010 during The X Factor UK as all five members auditioned as solo acts but were grouped together by Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger. Zayn Malik left One Direction in 2015 to focus on a solo career, and the boyband announced an indefinite hiatus in 2016.
Speaking with Zane Lowe in a new interview for Apple Music 1 earlier this year, Niall Horan revealed that while “all members” of the group – including Zayn Malik – speak regularly, a conversation around a possible reunion reunion just hasn’t happened.
“It’s just like the conversation hasn’t happened,” he shared. “It’s a great legacy to have. No, I don’t think [asking about the reunion] sucks the air out the room. It’s more, the answer’s still the same. The conversation hasn’t happened. God knows whether it ends up being — it could be like the Friends reunion, it could be a whole tour. God knows what it is, but no, it hasn’t been spoken about.”
However, last month, Zayn Malik opened up about leaving One Direction and the band’s eventual hiatus in his first interview in six years. Appearing on Spotify podcast Call Her Daddy, hosted by Alex Cooper, Malik discussed his time in the band, admitting that songwriting together was “hard”. “There used to be five of us in the room when we would write, it was so hard for us all to have the same viewpoint to talk about the same thing,” he said.
“There were obviously underlying issues,” he continued. “Like within our friendships, too. We’ve been together every day for five years, and we got sick of each other, if I’m being completely honest. So we were close.” Despite feeling that way at the time, he added that now he looks back on his experiences with One Direction in a “much fonder light”.
