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Anne was the driving force behind Harry’s X Factor journey, stepping in to submit his application when he hesitated.
“People say I’m a good singer. Mostly, it’s my mum,” quipped the 16-year-old during his audition for The X Factor in the spring of 2010. Harry, already showing his charming side, delivered an a cappella rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely.” He added, “Singing is my passion, and if the decision-makers think I shouldn’t pursue it, that would be a major setback for my dreams.”
Though he didn’t advance to the final rounds in the Boys category, nor the next-to-last, the show wasn’t ready to part ways with him.
In a twist of fate, Simon Cowell and guest judge Nicole Scherzinger—standing in for Cheryl Cole—saw potential in grouping Harry with fellow solo hopefuls Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson.
“I won’t claim all the credit, but I’ll take some,” Scherzinger remarked in the 2013 documentary One Direction: Going Our Way, acknowledging her often-overlooked role in creating what would become a sensation. Meanwhile, Louis Walsh, another judge, famously didn’t see what Harry had to offer at all.
“Come on, I’m not going to take credit, but I’m going to take credit,” Scherzinger says in the 2013 documentary One Direction: Going Our Way about her usually uncredited role in capturing lightning in a bottle. (Louis Walsh, meanwhile, was the other judge, the one who infamously didn’t get Harry at all.)
It was Harry, however, who came up with the group’s name.
“I thought it sounded good,” he recalled on CBS Sunday Morning in 2017. “We threw around names for a little bit, and I honestly don’t know. I suggested it and everyone was like, ‘Yeah, we like that,’ and then it kind of stuck, and that was what it was.”
“Basically we just came up with the idea to make loads of names up,” Zayn said on Phoenix’s Hot 97.5 FM in 2012, “and it was one of the first names Harry came up with. He just texted it to us and we were like, ‘Yeah, I like that, it’s cool.’ There were some really embarrassing ones that Liam came up with…What was the other one? USP—Unique Selling Point.”