This web special was first published on March 11, 2015. It was updated on Aug 24, 2015.
Britain's top boy band One Direction is set to break up in March, according to reports.
The teen idols - Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan - are parting company for a year because they want to focus on solo projects, The Guardian reported.
A source told The Sun: "The guys have been together for five years, which is an incredible run for any boy band. They fully deserve to have at least a year to work on their own projects. There is absolutely no bad blood between them and they are all 100 per cent behind the decision. It is definitely not a split and they fully intend to get back together at some time in the future."
This news may not come as a surprise to many since Zayn Malik recently left the boy band in March 2015, just weeks after performing their first concert in Singapore, "to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight".
But fans here are probably glad to have caught their gig at the National Stadium in March. They played to a sold-out crowd of 30,000 people.
Here are some of the band's milestones as well as stories about their Singaporean fans.
One Direction concert sets new Twitter record for Singapore-based event
The first concert here by British boyband One Direction on March 11, 2015 set a new Twitter record for a Singapore-based event, the social media company said on Thursday.
There were over 100,000 tweets from Singaporeans and fans in the region, setting a new record with the hashtag #OTRASG (On the Road Again - Singapore).
Some 30,000 fans, most of them teenagers, filled the National Stadium where the concert was held. Throughout the 100-minute show, the fans shared moments from the concert and interacted with the band members on Twitter.
One Direction fans in Singapore make plans to support band
When One Direction sing their 2012 hit tune Little Things at their upcoming National Stadium concert, the band can expect to see a sea of red and white lights shine from the audience.
Explains local One Direction fan Desiree Choo: "It's like a tradition for their fans around the world to hold up their mobile phones and light up the concert venue whenever they sing the song, but we wanted to make it red and white to represent the colours of the Singapore flag."
The 23-year-old runs local Twitter fan account 1DirectSG, which has more than 1,800 followers.
1D fans gather for Web video
About 800 Singapore fans of the British pop band One Direction will appear in a video on the group's website on Saturday.
They gathered at the Supertree Grove in Gardens by the Bay to do a mass dance last Sunday evening as part of a 1D Carnival organised by Sony Music Entertainment Singapore.
Hundreds of teenyboppers were filmed dancing along to the band's hit song, Best Song Ever.
Andy Chen writes: Rocking out for my daughter
When a bunch of healthy, well-adjusted adult males gather to belt out a floppy-headed boyband's cheesy song with gusto, there can only be one reason for it: true love.
That's how I found myself among more than 10 fathers who volunteered to perform One Direction's That's What Makes You Beautiful at my elder daughter Faith's primary school during its recent Children's Day celebrations.
It was hard, very hard, on us. Not the performance itself - after all, it's only a mindless pop ditty with all the complexity of bubblegum.
One Direction launch 3-D behind scenes documentary This Is Us
LONDON (REUTERS) - British boy band One Direction, one of the pop music industry's biggest acts in the last two years, plan to show the world what they're really like in a new 3-D documentary which will premiere in London on Tuesday.
The five singers told a news conference in the British capital on Monday that This Is Us allowed them to present themselves in a more fulsome manner than they were depicted on videos, in concert and on the ubiquitous social media sites which track their every movement on and off stage.
"There is only so much you can get across in terms of your personality, you know, social media and like 10-minute interviews you do with people," singer Harry Styles said.
One Direction takes new record industry award as top band of 2013
LONDON (REUTERS) - Boy band One Direction was named the most popular recording artist of 2013 on Wednesday, in a record industry award that for the first time counted streaming numbers on services such as Spotify and Deezer as well as CD sales and downloads.
Streaming music has soared in popularity in recent years and Spotify boasts 24 million active users around the world.
"Streaming has become so much more mainstream within the music industry worldwide over the last couple of years we thought it was time we integrated the streams-on services such as Deezer and Spotify and YouTube as well," IFPI communications manager Alex Jacob said.
One Direction make Billboard history, knock Taylor Swift from No.1
LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - British boy band One Direction became the only group to score four consecutive No. 1 debuts on the American Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, ousting Taylor Swift from her chart-topping reign.
One Direction's latest album, Four, sold 387,000 copies in its first week, according to figures compiled by Nielsen SoundScan.
It follows the band's three previous albums, 2011's Up All Night, 2012's Take Me Home and 2013's Midnight Memories, all of which opened at No. 1 on the Billboard chart.
Concert review: What music? Screams from One Direction fans in Brisbane drown out sound system
If there is one thing I learnt about going to a One Direction show, it is that you do not go to the gig expecting to hear much music.
What you get instead is a constant barrage of high-pitched screams from thousands of teenage and pre-pubescent girls who do not let up from the moment the quintet hit the stage to the time they exit.
Like at most stadium shows, the sound system at Brisbane's open-air Suncorp Stadium, where 1D played on Wednesday, is booming and powerful, but it is not potent enough to rise above the British-Irish quintet's army of followers. Let's hope the technical hardware at Singapore's National Stadium holds up better when the band play here for the first time on March 11.
