Imagine a band made up of five Justin Biebers, each with an adorable British or Irish accent. Imagine no more. Meet One Direction.
The boy band members entered The X Factor as soloists, but failed to qualify for the 'Boys' category. Guest judge Nicole Scherzinger suggested they return as a group. They did, as One Direction, and came in third in the seventh season of the TV talent show The X Factor.
Since then, they seem to have adopted a kind of 'together we stand, divided we fall' motto, and stolen the hearts of millions of teenagers with their songs.
In a phone interview with Young Post, Niall Horan, 18, recalls the moment they were told to group up.
'I was really up for it. To put it bluntly, if we stayed on and soloed, we would've got kicked out of the competition,' he says. Teaming up seemed to be a winning strategy.
Despite their youth - the oldest member, Louis Tomlinson, is only 20, Zayn Malik is 19, and Liam Payne and Harry Styles are also 18 - and the pressure of being in the spotlight, Niall et al have taken their sudden celebrity in stride. 'We can still live a normal life. We can walk on the street. We can go to the shops. We can do all that stuff,' he says. 'We just have to watch our timing. For example, we can't walk past a girls' school at 3.30pm. Sometimes we may have to put on a hat or some glasses or something.'