One Direction, also referred to as 1D are an Irish boy band from England and Ireland. It began with Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. They finished third on the seventh series of "The X Factor". They each auditioned for "The X Factor" separately. Simon Cowell put them together in 2010 because he thought they were too good to lose.