Liam James Payne (born 29 August 1993) is an English singer and songwriter.
He rose to fame as a member of the boy band One Direction.
Payne made his debut as a singer when he auditioned for the British television series The X Factor in 2008. After being eliminated as a solo performer, he auditioned again in 2010 and was put into a group with four other contestants to form One Direction
Edward Christopher Sheeran, MBE (born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. In early 2011, Sheeran independently released the extended play, No. 5 Collaborations Project. After signing with Asylum Records, his debut album, + (pronounced "plus"), was released in September 2011. It topped the UK and Australian charts, reached number five in the US, and has since been certified eight-times platinum in the UK.
The album contains the single "The A Team", which earned him the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. In 2012, Sheeran won the Brit Awards for Best British Male Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act. "The A Team" was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2013 Grammy Awards, where he performed the song with Elton John.
Can you believe it's been more than seven years since One Direction went on an indefinite hiatus? Since then, all five band members – Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne and Niall Horan – have launched successful solo careers, continuing the group's legacy as a global pop phenomenon.
Looking back, it's incredible to witness just how much 1D packed in during their initial six-year run. They released five albums – Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013), Four (2014) and Made in the A.M. (2015) – embarked on four headline tours, and racked up 28 Top 75 singles in the UK.
Four of those singles, beginning with their 2011 debut What Makes You Beautiful, made it to Number 1. As Niall heads for another Number 1 with – this time on the Official Albums Chart, with his third solo effort The Show – we're taking the opportunity to unveil the era-defining boyband's Official Top 20 biggest songs in the UK.
Warning: you will end up wanting to revisit their gleaming back catalogue after reading this. Released in July 2015, Made in the A.M.'s lead single was the band's first without Zayn, who had departed that March.
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