Former One Direction star Louis Tomlinson has described the boyband’s UK number one single “What Makes You Beautiful” as “a little corny” and said he thought it was uncool.
The 34-year-old went on to say that despite having issues with the song, he “probably had my whole career to thank for it” and said it was still “great”, just “all a bit Grease”.
Asked by Scott Mills on his BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show which One Direction song he least liked performing, Tomlinson said: “What Makes You Beautiful, always, always, always, always.
“I actually, I think two reasons on that, it’s definitely our most pop and most like bubble gum pop moment, and secondly, performing that always felt so eggy, like at the time I was 18, and it wasn’t the coolest thing to be in a boyband, and then we got really big, so it was cool.
“You know, singing, ‘baby, you light up my world like nobody else’, honestly, like it wouldn’t be out of place in a Disney film, so it felt a little corny.”
But Tomlinson was quick to praise One Direction’s UK number two single “Story Of My Life”, claiming it helped the group to move away from the boyband style of time.
He said: “My favourite One Direction song as it is on record is probably “Story Of My Life”, I think that was a real moment, that’s not the kind of record you expect from a band like One Direction, and I think that was kind of a turning point for us.
“So I remember feeling really proud that (it) wasn’t the kind of song that you could ever dance to, there was definitely a kind of mould of boybands before then, and I think that was a song that really helped us kind of break out of that.”
Tomlinson’s solo career was launched after he and fellow One Direction members Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Harry Styles went on hiatus in 2016, almost a year after Zayn Malik left the group.
Payne died at the age of 31 in October 2024 after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina, and the boyband’s surviving members reunited at his funeral alongside former manager Simon Cowell in November that year.
Tomlinson released his debut solo album Walls in 2020, which reached number four on the UK albums chart, and has gone on to release Faith In The Future (2022) and released his third studio album How Did I Get Here? in January.
His last two albums have topped the UK albums chart, and Tomlinson has also had top 10 hit singles with Just Hold On with Steve Aoki, and Back To You with Bebe Rexha and Digital Farm Animals.
One Direction formed in 2010, when they were put together by Cowell on ITV talent show The X Factor.
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