The X Factor! Each of the boys, went to X Factor as solo artists. And they have never met before. But little did they and the judges know, they were going to form a boy band called One Direction. Simon then put Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Harry Styles into a group. During the Bootcamp round Simon, Nicole and Louis gave the boys the bad news that they didn't make it through as solo artists. They were very sad. But they were offered a deal. The judges wanted them to form a group. To learn to sing as a group instead of solo. The boys quickly said yes at the chance. One Direction was formed. Harry thought of the name "One Direction". And they first performed a song called "Torn" at the Judges' house in Spain. In the end of the X-Factor, One Direction came in 3rd place. It was after Christmas when the boys got a call from Simon Cowell. He asked them to go to a meeting at Syco Records in London to discuss their future. That day, he told them some good news. He would sign them to Syco, they had a record deal. “I didn’t think I would ever want to be in a group. But when I was there and it was happening, and I knew the lads a bit, there was no way I was going to say ‘no’. We’ve all got quite different sounding voices and our own individual style, so we can play up to that and play to each of our strengths.“ -Zayn Malik “To start off with it was difficult because we all had our egos and we wanted to get ourselves across in the group. It was tough. Now, we’re literally like five best friends.” -Louis Tomlinson On 12 December 2010, One Direction won the third place of The X Factor 2010. And even though they didnt come first, it was obvious they attracted alot of fans. Hundreds of girls would wait outside the TV studios in London just to see a little bit of their favorite new boy band. And for the boys, they quickly after received a bunch of fanmail. We are talking bag fulls of fanmail. There was no way One Direction could be ignored.