One Direction member Niall Horan said on Monday that the hugely successful British boy band will take a “well earned break” next year, but are not splitting up.
Horan, 21, told his 23 million fans on Twitter that the group will continue to tour and play new music, after a report in a British newspaper said the band will be taking a year-long break next year so that members can pursue separate interests.
“We are not splitting up, but we will be taking a well earned break at some point next year,” he said. “Don’t worry though, we still have lots we want to achieve!”
A Sony Music representative for the band declined to comment.
The band, now comprising Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles, soared to international prominence after finishing third on the British version of the X Factor in 2010.
The break will come after the band, reduced to four members following the departure of Zayn Malik earlier this year, release their fifth album in March, the report in the Sun newspaper said.
“The guys have been together for five years, which is an incredible run for any boy band,” a source told the newspaper.
“They fully deserve to have at least a year to work on their own projects. There is absolutely no bad blood between them and they are all 100 per cent behind the decision.” The group’s last scheduled stadium concert will be in Sheffield, England, on October 31. They will promote their new album in February, after a Christmas break, the Sun said.
Let’s not forget that no matter what happens next, One Direction has unexpectedly cemented itself in music history. While the typical lifespan of the average boy band is about five years, it’s unusual that one remains so successful for so long — certainly not what their label executive Simon Cowell and his fellow X Factor judges could have predicted.
Although the frenzy over groups such as NSYNC and Backstreet Boys calmed down a bit after their second albums, One Direction is still going strong with their fourth album this year. Four debuted at No 1, making the band the only one in the United States ever to top the charts with its first four albums.
“One Direction proved to be the exception to the rule,” Billboard assistant editor Jason Lipshutz told The Washington Post last year. “They still put out a ton of successful music — part of that is releasing so much in such a little time frame.”
Billboard reports that One Direction has sold 6.5 million albums in the United States, with nearly 24 million song downloads over the past five years — and 65 million records worldwide. It’s an especially impressive figure given the difference in the music climate compared with when NSYNC and Backstreet Boys scored monster sales numbers, including NSYNC’s two million sales in 2000 for the first week of its sophomore album, No Strings Attached.
In an era of declining album sales, One Direction’s buzz just grows. Its new single Drag Me Down, released in July, sold 500,000 copies in its first week.
— with inputs from Washington Post
