Since One Direction’s 2016 split, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik have had varying levels of success in the music industry.
All five original members have embarked on solo careers, with Malik becoming the first to do so after abruptly leaving the boy band in March 2015. He subsequently signed a solo contract with RCA Records, and released his debut album, Mind of Mine, the following year.
Styles followed suit in June 2016, re-signing with Columbia Records and dropping his self-titled debut in May 2017. Horan, meanwhile, inked a deal with Capitol Records in September 2016, and released his first album, Flicker, in October 2017.
Payne and Tomlinson had slower starts to their solo careers. They each put out a series of one-off singles in the years after 1D went their separate ways but did not release full-length albums right away. Payne’s debut, LP1, dropped in December 2019, while Tomlinson’s Walls hit retailers in January 2020.
Despite parting ways, most of the former boy banders have remained in touch over the years. In fact, Payne revealed in June 2021 that he and Styles had recently caught up following the “Watermelon Sugar” singer’s first Grammy win earlier that year.
“Yeah, I did speak to Harry, and it was really lovely,” Payne said during an Instagram Live at the time. “He called me because he has a sixth sense for if I’m struggling or if one of us is in trouble, I feel like.”
The “Live Forever” crooner added: “I spoke to him and it was a really lovely catch up actually. And I’ve got a lot of love for the man. He’s great, he’s really, really great.”
When it comes to musically reconnecting, Payne is open to a possible 1D reunion in the future.
“I’d love for us to get in a room at some point. I think it would be the best thing,” he explained, noting that all of his former bandmates have discussed a comeback mission and have “said it outside, but we’ve just not said it to each other.” He joked, “there’s a song in there somewhere.”
Below, Us Weekly breaks down the five guys’ solo careers by the numbers: