As Zayn Malik releases his fourth solo album, 'ROOM UNDER THE STAIRS,' GRAMMY.com takes a deeper look into the solo careers of Malik and his One Direction bandmates, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson.
| GRAMMYs / Jun 13, 2023 - 04:39 pmEditor's Note: This article was updated on May 17, 2024 with information about Zayn Malik's album ROOM UNDER THE STAIRS and other releases/significant moments since the original publish date.
Looking at everything One Direction achieved in their time together, it's hard to believe that they were only active for six years. What's even harder to fathom is that they've now been on hiatus for nearly a decade — but luckily for fans, that time has proven fruitful for Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles , and Louis Tomlinson.
Each member has released at least one studio album as a solo artist, and they have all dipped into several other ventures within fashion, producing and mentoring rising stars. Malik is the latest to deliver more solo music, unveiling his fourth album, Room Under the Stairs , on May 17.
Through all of those efforts, the quintet has kept One Direction's legacy not only alive, but thriving. While together, they were a pop phenomenon who sold an approximate 70 million records, but their solo careers have allowed them to showcase their true personalities. With that, monumental achievements came in tow — GRAMMY Awards, sold-out tours, and even more chart-topping hits — as well as the certainty that One Direction will never fully diminish (see Styles' roaring rendition of "What Makes You Beautiful" or Horan's sweet performance of "Story of My Life" ).
From Styles' eponymous debut LP to Malik's latest set, GRAMMY.com breaks down all of One Direction's solo endeavors to date.
Soon after his sudden departure from the group in 2015, Zayn Malik signed with RCA Records. His debut album, Mind of Mine , came out on March 25, 2016 — exactly one year after he left the band.
Mind of Mine saw Malik in a new musical direction, leaning into his R&B roots and soulful voice while also taking a more risqué approach in his songwriting. Despite the stark difference, the album topped several charts upon debut, including the U.S. and the U.K., even helping Malik become the first British male singer to top the Billboard 200 with his first album. (Lead single "Pillowtalk" also debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the first time a U.K. artist topped the chart with their first single.)
Malik quickly proved to be a sought-after collaborator, with Chris Brown , Snakehips and M.I.A. all recruiting him for singles in 2016. At the end of that year, he issued his biggest collab to date, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" with Taylor Swift for the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack. The song scored Malik his second massive hit on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 2.
As fans eagerly awaited his second album, Malik delivered two more major collabs, "Still Got Time" featuring PartyNextDoor and "Dusk Till Dawn" with Sia . After facing several delays, Icarus Falls arrived in December 2018. Comprising 27 songs across two disks, the album was inspired by the Greek myth, and expands Malik's usual R&B to loftier, edgier pop moments, like singles "Let Me Be" and "No Candle No Light" with Nicki Minaj .
Malik released his third studio album, the vulnerable Nobody Is Listening , in 2021. Described as his "most personal project to date" in a statement, the record is a stripped-down, quiet statement on Malik's growing talents. Later that year, he shared a since-deleted Dropbox link to Yellow Tape — a collection of three controversial hip-hop songs that showed another side of his musicality.
Though he has been fairly quiet in the past three years, Malik made waves in both 2022 and 2023 for very different reasons. In 2022, he paid tribute to his time in 1D with an instantly viral clip of him singing his fan-favorite note from "You & I"; last year, he hopped on a posthumous remix of Jimi Hendrix 's "Angel."
In March 2024, Malik finally announced his much-anticipated fourth LP, ROOM UNDER THE STAIRS , which dropped May 17. Co-produced by Dave Cobb ( Chris Stapleton , Brandi Carlile , Bruce Springsteen ), the record sees Malik taking yet another musical turn and diving into country-leaning, bluesier sounds, as can be seen in singles "What I Am" and "Alienated." Malik explained in a teaser video that his intention for the 15-track album is for the listener to "get more insight on me personally as a human being."
Niall Horan signed with Capitol Records and released his first solo single, "This Town," in September 2016. Followed by "Slow Hands," and "Too Much to Ask," Horan released his debut LP, Flicker , in October 2017 — just as "Slow Hands" hit No. 1 on Billboard's Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay charts. A mix of soft rock and straightforward pop, the album helped Horan become the third 1D member in a row to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (after Malik and Styles, more on the latter later).
In support of the release, Horan embarked on two world tours: Flicker Sessions, which started in August 2017 and was held in smaller, intimate venues, and 2018's Flicker World Tour, which featured 82 shows across North and Latin America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia.
Horan's second studio album, Heartbreak Weather , led by single "Nice to Meet Ya," came out in March 2020 and topped the charts in the U.K. and Ireland, while reaching No. 4 in the U.S. However, the COVID-19 pandemic stalled his ambitious touring plans, and he decided to use his downtime for collaboration.
He teamed up with Anne-Marie for two singles, "Our Song" and a cover of Fleetwood Mac 's "Everywhere," and hopped on a version of Ashe's "Moral of the Story," But perhaps his most beloved collab is with his best friend Lewis Capaldi — a bromance that started with Horan's admiration for the singer and developed into live performances together, plenty of interactions on social media , and a Guinness-sponsored TV special, Homecoming: The Road to Mullingar , out in 2022.
Horan's third studio album, The Show , came out on June 9, 2023, just after he wrapped up his first (and winning) season as a coach on NBC's "The Voice." A fruitful experimentation of folk melodies and modern synths, The Show displays how much his songwriting has matured since Heartbreak Weather , and the result resonated with fans and critics alike; The Show debuted at No. 2 on Billboard 's 200 chart.
In the following months, Horan performed at a slew of festivals across Europe and Asia — and won his second season of "The Voice" — as he prepared for the biggest tour in his solo career so far. The Show: Live on Tour kicked off in his native Ireland in February 2024, and hit cities across the U.K., Europe, Asia and Oceania. The tour will keep Horan busy through October 9, making stops in North and South America as well as a brief return to Dublin and the U.K.
Louis Tomlinson was the biggest contributor to One Direction's songwriting, with credits on nearly 40 songs in their discography. His passion for music production extended to an auxiliary participation on 2015's "The X Factor," which in 2018 turned into a fixed position as a judge and winning mentor on the fifteenth series of the show.
As for Tomlinson's own solo music, he made his debut with the Steve Aoki -assisted single "Just Hold On" in December of 2016. Before releasing his debut LP, Walls , in January of 2020, the singer focused on collaborations and singles. Through a pop-punk verve, Tomlinson began to establish his own post-1D style with singles like 2017's "Just Like You" and the minimalistic "Back To You" with Bebe Rexha — his biggest hit to date, with more than 1 billion combined streams on Spotify and YouTube. Some other singles, like the touching tribute to his late mother, "Two of Us," and the rock-edged "Kill My Mind," were included on Walls .
In 2021, he created and curated The Away From Home Festival, a one-day fest first held in London that year, followed by a 2022 edition in Malaga and a 2023 edition in Italy. In 2024, the event will return for its fourth run in June at Mérida, Mexico. Among the lineup are rising names like Kevin Kaarl, DMA's, and Dylan, in addition to Tomlinson's own set.
Faith in The Future , Tomlinson's second album, was released at the end of 2022 and reached No. 1 in the U.K., marking his first top-charting album in the country as a soloist. Supported by singles "Bigger Than Me," "Out of My System," and "Silver Tongues," it furthered Tomlinson's explorations into indie rock and Britpop. In March 2023, he also released All Of Those Voices , a soul-baring documentary where he talked about his fears upon One Direction's hiatus, grief, fatherhood, and the struggles of fame.
Tomlinson has been making stops around the globe on his Faith in the Future World Tour, which started off in North America in May 2023 and hit Europe, and the U.K. last year. He picked things up again in January 2024, first stopping through Indonesia and Australia; Tomlinson's last leg sees him performing in South America and Mexico, starting in Panama May 2 and concluding in Guadalajara, Mexico on June 6.
Just before his final tour stretch, Tomlinson surprise-released a live album, simply titled Live, in April 2024, featuring 15 songs from 15 different shows over the past three years. Each track was recorded in a distinct city, including "The Greatest" in London, "Fearless" in Rio de Janeiro, and "Chicago" in Chicago.
After signing with Columbia Records in 2016, Harry Styles made his solo debut in April 2017 with the power ballad "Sign of the Times." Just one month later, his eponymous debut album came to life. A commercial and critical success, it topped charts in several countries upon release, including the U.S. and the U.K album tallies.
From the get-go, Styles' solo appeal was apparent. After immediately selling out his first run of solo shows that fall, he plotted a world tour playing arenas in 2018 — all of which sold out. That success translated to the release of his second album, 2019's Fine Line . The album's first-week sales were the biggest for a British male soloist since 1991, when Nielsen began tracking sales electronically.
While singles "Adore You" and "Falling" had solid traction, it was "Watermelon Sugar" that solidified his place as a solo superstar. Not only did the track earn Styles his first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100, but it also won the singer his first GRAMMY in 2021 , for Best Pop Solo Performance.
Then came the lauded Harry's House , the album that cemented Styles as a vanguard artist and performer. Lead single "As It Was" foreshadowed the gargantuan success that was to come, topping the Hot 100 for 15 weeks — the longest-running U.S. No. 1 by a U.K. artist . Harry's House debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and was one of the best-selling albums of 2022 with more than 2 million equivalent album units. The album also went on to win Best Pop Vocal Album and the coveted Album Of The Year at the 2023 GRAMMYs.
Styles' sold-out Love On Tour, which lasted from September 2021 to July 2023, has also set unprecedented records. Through 169 shows across North and South America, the U.K., Europe, Asia, and Oceania, Love On Tour concluded as one of the best-selling tours of all time, grossing $617.3 million and selling more than 5 million tickets, according to Billboard 's Boxscore . These numbers also outdo One Direction's entire career gross of $583.4 million over four tours from 2012 to 2015, leading Styles to a new level of superstardom.
Along with his impressive music career, Styles has made an impact through his daring fashion sense in recent years. He's modeled for brands like Gucci, and became the first man to appear solo on the cover of Vogue in 2019. The singer has also ventured into acting, appearing in movies like 2017's Dunkirk and 2022's Don't Worry Darling and My Policeman .
Back in March, Styles teased new music during his New Zealand concert. "We're almost at the end of the fruit bowl," he said, nodding to the many fruit references in his discography ("Watermelon Sugar," "Kiwi," "Grapejuice"). "Come album four, who knows? No citrus is safe."
Like Tomlinson, Liam Payne co-wrote over 30 songs for One Direction; he also started to venture into his own musicality with a few remixes of 1D tracks in 2014 and 2015, under the aliases "Payno" and "Big Payno." He signed with Republic Records in October 2016, unveiling his debut solo single, "Strip That Down" (featuring Migos ' Quavo ) in May 2017. With lyrics that reinforced his new journey ("You know I used to be in 1D"), the track peaked at No. 10 on the Hot 100 and spent two weeks atop Billboard's Pop Airplay chart.
Payne's solo career has arguably been the most diverse of any One Direction member, as he's explored pop, hip-hop, Latin, and electronic music. Along with collaborating with the likes of Rita Ora ("For You", off of Fifty Shades Freed 's soundtrack), A Boogie wit da Hoodie ("Stack It Up"), and J Balvin ("Familiar"), he proved to be dexterous on his own as well, bending his voice from high falsettos ("Bedroom Floor") to charming croons ("Home With You").
After a 2018 EP, First Time , Payne dropped his debut studio album, the long-awaited LP1 , in December 2019. Including all of his previous singles, the record frames Payne as a jack of all trades, able to move from trap and hip hop ("Weekend") to Timberlake-inspired pop ("Strip That Down") and even to a Christmas song ("All I Want (For Christmas)").
While he has been less active musically in recent years, Payne delivered another dance collab in 2020 ("Midnight" with Alesso ), a couple of Christmas tracks (including the Dixie D'Amelio team-up "Naughty List,"), and a song for the 2021 animated movie Ron's Gone Wrong , "Sunshine." Outside of music, Payne was also named the first global ambassador for fashion brand Hugo Boss, and designed two of their capsule collections.
After mentions of working on a new album last year, Payne shared the single "Teardrops" in March 2024. Co-written with One Direction collaborator Jamie Scott and JC Chasez of *NSYNC , the track leans into early '00s pop and tackles the pain of a heartbreak. The release comes after a turbulent phase for the singer, who opened up on YouTube about his rehab stretch and controversial comments on his former bandmates. In a statement, Payne said that "Teardrops" "marks the start of a new beginning," and that "there's lots more to come in 2024."
Whether or not a One Direction reunion ever happens, the quintet's individual forays continue to bloom, and exciting opportunities lie ahead for each of the members. Through their diverse repertoire and newfound artistries, one thing is certain: the 1D members might follow multiple directions now, but they aren't stopping anytime soon.
Photo: David O’Donohue
Amy Allen has penned hits for stars like Halsey, Harry Styles, and Tate McRae, including two recent smashes from Sabrina Carpenter. As she embarks on her own artist journey, learn more about the GRAMMY-winner's already dazzling career.
| GRAMMYs / Jul 18, 2024 - 06:13 pmSome artists are lucky enough to have a moment: a song of the summer, a radio hit, or a point at which their song dominates the pop conversation. Before even launching her own singing career, Amy Allen has done just that — multiple times.
In 2022, the Maine native contributed to hit songs from Harry Styles , Lizzo , Charli XCX , and King Princess; at the 2023 GRAMMYs, she was one of the inaugural nominees for Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical, and celebrated an Album Of The Year win alongside Styles thanks to her work on Harry's House . And as of press time, two songs she co-wrote with Sabrina Carpenter are in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart: "Espresso" and " Please Please Please ," the latter of which hit No. 1.
When you have a resume and catalog as impressive as Allen's, it's hard not to get stuck in a run of highlights — but Allen's writing style is so full of remarkable emotional depth and inevitable hooks that her life and career deserves further exploration. After binging on classic rock and performing in rock and bluegrass bands in her youth, Allen began writing songs for others in the mid 2010s and has only continued to expand her impact on audiences and collaborators alike.
"Amy is a once-in-a-lifetime writer and friend — it all comes to her very naturally and effortlessly," Carpenter recently told Variety . "She's super versatile: She can wear any hat and yet it still feels authentic. I've learned a lot from her and admire what an incredible collaborator she is."
Along the way, Allen has continued honing her skills as an artist in her own right, releasing a handful of EPs and singles since 2015, initially under the name Amy and the Engine. But on Sept. 6, she's ready to fully introduce herself with her debut album — fittingly titled Amy Allen .
Just after Allen celebrated her latest No. 1 and released her newest single, "even forever," GRAMMY.com rounded up the key details you need to know about the singer/songwriter's diverse musical background, from her advocacy for female creators to seeing Harry Styles sing a song she co-wrote to a massive audience.
Allen's early musical growth relied on four-wheeled vehicles to drive the plot forward — in many different forms. Growing up in rural Maine meant long car rides to for school and family outings, which in turn meant a lot of time with the radio.
"My dad is the biggest classic rock fan, so since I was little, I spent hours every day listening to music in the car with him and my sisters," she told Variety earlier this year.
When it came time for one of her sisters to start a band, the elder Allen named it No U-Turn, setting the theme. When the band needed a new bassist, Amy took up the low end at just 8 years old, learning classic songs from the likes of Tom Petty and Rolling Stones . The band started collecting opening spots at a bar in Portland, Maine, and lasted until Allen was in high school and her sisters had left for college. In addition, she started playing in a bluegrass band called Jerks of Grass alongside her high school guitar teacher.
Eventually, Allen thought about moving on and changing course. "I went to nursing school at Boston College for two years, and within a month of getting there I was like, 'I made a big mistake,'" she continued. After moving over to the prestigious Berklee School of Music, Allen started a new project, yet again turning to vehicular terminology: Amy and the Engine, who would go on to open for the likes of Vance Joy and Kacey Musgraves . The project's timeless indie pop charm shone brightly on singles like "Last Forever" and the 2017 EP Get Me Outta Here!, fusing references ranging from the Cranberries to the Cure .
Back in 2021, Allen pondered whether it was time to carve up one of America's most prominent monuments. "Can you imagine tits on Mount Rushmore/ And Ruth Bader Ginsburg from dynamite sticks?" she sang on "A Woman's World," a highlight from her 2021 solo EP AWW! . The song backs off from that explicit ask, but the low-slung waltz of ghostly piano and gentle acoustic guitar still subversively slices at traditional gender roles and power dynamics.
And while the track may focus its first verse on the Notorious RBG, Allen designed it as a more approachable anthem. "I felt very proud of that song. And it's something that I love to play live, because I think that it's nice as a woman to give that moment to other women in the audience where I see them," she told The Line of Best Fit upon the EP's release.
Her solo work sits in a long line of female pop and rock stars looking to lift others up — with Allen's list of influences including everyone from the Carpenters and Pat Benatar to No Doubt , Hole , and Siouxsie and the Banshees. But she's also aware of the shortcomings in the industry when it comes to behind-the-scenes matters, with female songwriters representing a disproportionately small percentage of the industry and often at lower revenue than their male counterparts.
"It's important to have more women writing and performing so that younger girls can be hearing that and really connecting with that and resonating with that, and then being inspired to do that themselves," she continued. "I'm really excited to hear what the next generation of singer songwriters creates, and I want to do my part in making sure that they're able to."
Allen's emotionally salient and indelibly quirky songwriting with the Engine caught the attention of more than just adoring fans. While on a tour stop in New York, she connected with Scott Harris , a songwriter who has worked with the likes of Shawn Mendes , Camila Cabello , Niall Horan, and Meghan Trainor ; when Allen eventually moved to New York, she would take on some of Harris' writing sessions when he was in Los Angeles. One of those sessions spawned the first song she'd place with another artist: Selena Gomez 's "Back To You," which ended up on the soundtrack for the second season of Netflix's teen drama "13 Reasons Why" in 2018.
"I grew up listening to Selena Gomez, and I know that she's going to be a pop icon forever," Allen told People in 2020. "She's awesome. I was so psyched…It definitely propelled my career in the pop writing field further."
Two years later, she would re-team with Gomez for "My Mind & Me," a single released alongside a documentary film of the same title following the impact of the star's diagnoses with lupus and bipolar disorder on her career. The single similarly offers an openhearted, empathetic look at big mental health struggles, this time in the form of a sweeping, cathartic power ballad driven by stumbling syllables and stair-step piano.
The track was shortlisted for Best Original Song at the 2023 Academy Awards, charted in more than a dozen countries, and, perhaps most importantly, seemed to have made quite the connection with Gomez. "Honestly, it was therapeutic for me," the pop star and actress told Variety in 2022. "I felt super connected to what I was singing and what I was saying."
Songwriters often wind up hidden behind the scenes, unable to really gather the impact that their artistic expression is making on others. But thankfully, Allen has been able to catch a peek in on the arena-sized reactions for some of her biggest collaborators.
One of Allen's most-played co-writes is "Adore You," a highlight from Harry Styles' 2019 album, Fine Line , which has nearly 1.7 billion streams on Spotify alone as of press time. The buoyant, slippery burst of Fleetwood Mac -indebted funk pop embodies the start of an infatuation, and fans similarly felt under the song's spell. And Allen finally got to see that feeling come to life at Styles' album release show at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles in 2019.
"Watching Harry, I was really nervous because the album had only been out for a couple days and I wasn't sure if anybody would know that song," Allen told Variety in 2020. She also noted that the song was a hard turn from more heartbroken tracks she'd written for the likes of Halsey . "'Adore You' was my first feel-good song, so I'm psyched about that," she added.
Though not in person, Allen got a similar bolt of joy when she was able to watch Lizzo perform Styles' track for BBC Radio 1 in 2020. "I idolize Lizzo," Allen continued. "It really just goes to show that the right song can be performed by many different people."
Little did Allen know that she'd get to celebrate a GRAMMY nomination and win alongside Lizzo and Styles, respectively, just three years later. She co-wrote "If You Love Me" from the flute-jamming pop star's 2022 record Special, which was nominated for Album Of The Year at the 2023 GRAMMYs, where Styles' Harry's House (which featured Allen's co-write "Matilda") won the coveted honor.
