Up All Night: One Direction's Album After X-Factor

Many artists find it hard to achieved mainstream success in music despite winning or appearing in reality singing competitions. It should've been an exposure for them but many contestants struggled to get noticed in the saturated world of music.

One Direction is among those products of singing competitions. They auditioned as five individuals, and were formed as a group by the show's creator Simon Cowell. The group didn't win the show but finalists, which was X-Factor UK, but being formed by Simon, it's already expected that the guys will have their own musical career.

Finally, the guys debuted in United Kingdom, and eventually expanded to United States and the rest of the world through their debut album "Up All Night". The song "What Makes You Beautiful" was their first single which shot to number 1 UK Singles Chart, and 4 in Billboard Hot 100. It was also a hit internationally. Their second single was the ballad "Gotta Be You", which was released before "What Makes You Beautiful" was released Stateside. The single peaked at number 3 in UK, and only charted at Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles in the US at number 24.

The third single off the album was "One Thing" which became a number 9 hit in United Kingdom. In the US, it reached number 39 while in Mainstream chart, it peaked at 15.

"More Than This" was the final single which received moderate chart positions, only at number 86 in UK Singles Chart. Its music video, which had more than a hundred million views on YouTube, was taken from their "Up All Night: The Live Tour", which was released as a live album and sold more than a million copies. "Up All Night" album has established One Direction, and made them superstars and the biggest boyband of their time. It had gone 3x platinum in the US, and 4x platinum in UK.