It hasn’t even been a year since the (four remaining) One Direction guys began their hiatus, but every one of them seem to have already embarked upon their respetitve solo ventures in some form.
While Zayn Malik started the trend with his abrupt departure in March 2015 — and debut album Mind of Mine exactly one year later — once Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Niall Horan were freed from the band’s five-year contract, they quickly initiated their own projects. Styles, Horan and Payne revealed their solo contracts within months of each other, with Styles also adding an acting career to his CV after being cast in Christopher Nolan’s wartime flick Dunkirk.
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Horan was the first of the remaining members to actually release solo material, delivering the single “This Town” in September, and giving it the full promo tour on The Tonight Show, the American Music Awards and various Jingle Ball concerts around the country. (Payne followed up with a hint of what his music will sound like on Instagram, but no official release yet.)
As 2016 was nearing the end, Tomlinson appeared to be the only member not on his way to an independent music career — that is, until he surprised fans with a new track called “Just Hold On,” which he premiered with a performance on The X Factor UK (alongside collaborator Steve Aoki) on Dec. 10.
To top all of this off, Malik surprise-dropped a collab with Taylor Swift for the 50 Shades Darker soundtrack just a couple of days before Tomlinson’s big premiere, and a new Dunkirk trailer featuring Styles was unveiled days later. Suddenly Directioners are getting a lot of 1D action going into the new year.
So now that we have a little taste of what each One Direction member is going to do with their alone time, we can’t help asking: Which new solo project is best? Declare the winner by voting in our poll below.