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by MCRicaplaza

by MCRicaplaza

21. Payne had previously performed in front of a crowd of 26,000 during a Wolverhampton Wanderers football match.

22. Payne cites Pharrell Williams and Justin Timberlake as major musical influences. "The person who has inspired me most is Pharrell Williams who I worked with a while back. I got talking to his producer recently and asked him what Pharrell was like when he was younger, and he said to me that when he was my age he couldn't press a note on a keyboard. And that was amazing to me because at 22 I thought I was too old to learn guitar," revealed Payne.

23. Payne first auditioned for the fifth series of the British Singing Competition The X Factor in 2008, at just 14 years old.

24. Payne returned to the seventh series of the British Singing Competition The X Factor in 2010. He auditioned with Julie London's Cry Me a River, which earned him four yeses and a standing ovation from Cowell. Payne was considered the second favourite to win the competition following his solo audition.

25. Following The X Factor, One Direction were signed to Simon Cowell's Syco Entertainment in 2010.

26. One Direction released their first studio album, Up All Night, in 2011, followed by their second album, Take Me Home, in 2012. Their third album Midnight Memories was released in 2013, followed by their fourth album Four in 2014 and Made In The A.M in 2015.

27. One Direction became the only group in this 58-year history of the Billboard Hot 200 chart to have their first five albums debut at number 1.

28. The debut single Drag Me Down, which Payne announced, set a Spotify record with 4.75 millions plays in its first 24 hours.

29. During the Take Me Home Tour One Direction covered Wheatus's "Teenage Dirtbag." In the original song lead vocalist Brendan Brown performs a segment in a "female voice" which, in One Direction's rendition of the song Payne covered in falsetto. This garnered praise from Brown who commented "You can do my girl part anytime."

30. Following the departure of former member Zayn Malik, Liam has been tasked with taking over the bulk of Malik's vocals.