Which direction will One Direction go?
What will One Direction really do now that Zayn Malik (second from right) has left? Photo: Facebook/Lushington Entertainments
SINGAPORE – Did Ed Sheeran know something about One Direction (1D) the rest of us didn’t? About two weeks ago, the Brit Award winning singer hinted to TODAY that there was trouble in boyband paradise. After talk of toying with the idea to form a supergroup with Taylor Swift, we asked him about getting 1D to come in as backing vocalists.
“I don’t think that would work out,” he said, before adding: “I don’t know if they’ll still be together by then.” When asked to elaborate, Sheeran said: “Boybands usually go off and do their own things eventually. Every boyband (member) at some point wants to do their own thing.”
That “some point” apparently was March 25, when the world’s biggest male vocal group announced that Zayn Malik – he of the dark brooding looks – had left them.
“We’re really sad to see Zayn go, but we totally respect his decision and send him all our love for the future,” the band said in a statement. Malik said that his time with One Direction “has been more than I could ever have imagined” but that he wanted to lead a “normal life”. “After five years, I feel like it is now the right time for me to leave the band,” he said. “I’d like to apologise to the fans if I’ve let anyone down, but I have to do what feels right.”
This departure caps an eventful two weeks for Malik, who flew home from a tour stop in the Philippines over the weekend, citing stress. That departure from the tour came after he hit back at rumours of trouble in his relationship with fiancee Perrie Edwards of the band Little Mix, after pictures of him, taken with another girl while in Thailand a few days earlier, surfaced online.
Furthermore, he was one of two members in 1D – the other being Louis Tomlinson - slapped with a “weed bond” by authorities in The Philippines, with the money to be forfeited if either of them was caught using or promoting illegal drugs while they were there. This was on the back of a video that was circulated online last year, when the group was in Peru, which showed Tomlinson and Zayn appearing to smoke a joint and joking about drug use.
Fans are understandably upset, coming up with wild stories about Malik’s decision. Some are comparing Edwards to Yoko Ono (which, let’s face it, is a bit of a stretch), while others are saying that the group had foreshadowed this by calling their last album Four (‘nuff said).
But of course, Malik isn’t the first person to leave a highly successful music collective at the peak of their prowess. Nor will he be the last. Robbie Williams, for example, left Take That in 1995 when the boyband had just released their enormously popular Nobody Else album, featuring smash singles such as Never Forget and Back For Good. But Williams’ drug use and partying ways made the others give him an ultimatum: Shape up or ship out. Williams shipped out. The rest continued to tour without him, but a year later, Take That were no more.
In Out Of Sync, the book authored by Lance Bass of N’Sync - arguably America’s hottest boy band in the late ’90s and early Noughties – he mentioned how after the group took a hiatus in 2002, a meeting was called wherein Justin Timberlake announced his decision to leave the band in order to have a solo career.
Similarly, Boyzone’s demise was in part due to Ronan Keating wanting to explore a solo career after the success with his single, a cover of Alison Krauss’ When You Say Nothing At All, which he recorded for the film, Notting Hill; and let’s not forget the Backstreet Boys (BSB). In 2006 Kevin Richardson left the group to “pursue other interests”. Two days after Richardson’s departure announcement, the Backstreet Boys entered the studio to record their sixth album, Unbreakable, which was a Top 10 hit in several countries.
Of course, just because someone leaves a boyband doesn’t mean that member is not going to be welcomed back into the fold – if there is a fold left. Timberlake’s success with Justified in 2002 ensured that he didn’t really need N’Sync after that, but Richardson returned to BSB in 2012, and Williams also rejoined his Take That pals after they reunited – albeit for a short spell. Within that short spell though, the we-are-five-again Take That released Progress, which became the biggest-selling album in Britain in 2010, and the fastest-selling album of the 21st century.
So yes, fans will lament the loss of Malik and One Direction will embark on a new direction. The group said it would continue with four members and record a new album later this year. But how long will they last post-Zayn? History has shown that the success of boybands after a key member’s departure isn’t always assured, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be on an immediate downward spiral either.
The only question left is: Who will take their place should 1D decide to call it a day?
