The sound of UK pop music started to be viral all across the world around 2010. In this phase came the appearance of prominent singers such as Adele with “Set Fire to the rain” and “Hello”, One Direction with “What makes you beautiful” and “Live While We’re Young”, Ed Sheeran with “Shape of you” and “Perfect”. Some of us must have heard of these singers/bands once in a blue moon or lived through childhood, adulthood with them.
They used to be so famous, but we haven’t got any news about them lately. Let’s find out where they are and what they do at the moment.
Adele
Adele, or known as Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, was born on May the 5th in 1998. She always had a dream to be a singer/songwriter and she harboured that ambition until she graduated from the BRIT School in 2006. She signed a first record deal with XL Recordings and released the debut album “19” just 2 years after the deal was signed.
2008 marked her first milestone ever, which was being honoured with the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in the UK. The success then continued, with her second album “21” being the best selling album in 2011 and top performing album in US chart history. At this point, she became well known internationally with the singles “Rolling in the Deep”, “Someone like you” and “Set Fire to the Rain”. One year later, she released “Skyfall”, a soundtrack in a James Bond film Skyfall, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
In 2015, her third album “25” was released, breaking the first week sales records in both US and UK with over three million copies. At this time, her best single, “Hello”, became her worldwide symbol in her whole career. The accolades just kept going, and her album earned five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.
6 years later, her fourth album “30” came to public. This album consisted of the best single, “Easy on me”. Even though this album was quite humble compared to her previous ones, it still won her a Grammy Award for the best album in 2023.
After the fourth album, she decided to take a break from producing music and had no plans for a new album in the future.
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran, known as Edward Christopher Sheeran, is an English singer/songwriter from Framlingham, Suffolk. He was born on February the 17th, 1991. He began raising his passion for music and writing songs when he was only 11 years old.
At the time between 13 to 20 years old, he started his career independently in London. He played music in small venues, supporting as well as collaborating with other artists and posted his works on social media sites like Facebook and Youtube. Even though he didn’t finish his degree at the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) in Guildford, he still managed to earn a living by producing music.
However, in 2011, the tables were turned after he released his debut single “The A Team”. This gained attention from the audiences, making it a first milestone ever in his career. The single quickly got more than 800,000 copies and became one of the best selling singles in 2011. Following this, his first album “+”(Plus) received favourable reactions from music critics and fans. Not only did his album get numerous achievements and awards (2014’s Best New Artist Awards) but that also gave him a chance to co-work with other prominent singers such as Taylor Swift on “The Red Tour”.
In 2014 came his second album, “x”(Multiply). The album included 120 songs that he composed himself. In the same year, the album’s singles “Sing” and “Thinking out loud” became Ed Sheeran’s first top one singles in the UK, making him popular globally. The album topped in both US and UK music charts, helping Ed Sheeran win the 57th Grammy Awards in 2015. One year later, he and his single “Thinking Out Loud” won two more Grammy Awards: Song of the Year and Best Solo Performance.
His third album, “÷”(Divide), was released in 2017 after a long break from social media. His album quickly became a phenomenon, selling around 672,000 copies within the first week. This made his album the third most popular album in the UK chart history. In the same year, his two singles “Shape of You” and “Perfect” became viral, but only “Shape of you” later received the title Best selling single.
In 2019, Ed Sheeran held the fourth album No.6 Collaborations Project, producing music tracks with several artists such as Justin Bieber, Khalid, etc. 2 years later, his fìth album “=”(Equal) was released when the COVID pandemic ruled the world. The two eminent singles, “Shiver” and “Bad Habits”, all topped the Billboard top 100. The album became his fifth number one album in the UK, and fourth number one in the US.
In 2023, he released his sixth album called “-”(Substract) and Autumn Variation album 3 months later. At the moment, there is no information or news about his current projects or plans for the future.
One Direction
One Direction, or known as 1D, is a band of English boys that was formed in 2010. The group originally consisted of five members, including: Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson.
The band first appeared in 2010, when they participated in The X Factor competition. After the competition, they debuted their first single “What makes you Beautiful”, which was their first international success. In the same year, they debuted their first album Up All Night and it quickly became the first debut album by a British band to reach number 1 on US and UK charts. Following these achievements were three winning awards from MTV Video Music Awards in 2012, including Best New Artist.
In 2012, before launching a new album, they released a single “Live While We’re Young”, which became a global success immediately. Two months later, their second album Take Me Home was released and sold 540,000 copies within its first week. Later in that year, their second single “Little Things” was performed at the Royal Variety Performance in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II.
From 2013 to 2015, they continued to gain success as they released three more albums: Midnight Memories, This Is Us and Four. All of these albums were amazing due to the fact that they became best-selling albums of all time, making them the only band in the 58 year history of the Billboard 200 albums to achieve this. However, in 2015, Zayn Malik announced his departure from the band. He stated that he needed some private time out of the spotlight and he didn’t like the musical direction of the band. The group then decreased in size, including 4 members only.
In the 2015 – 2016 period, they released their last album Made in the A.M with the lead single “Drag Me Down”. They won the award Artist of the Year in the 2015 American Music Awards. At the same time, they released their last single “History”, which later won the Video of the Year at the 2017 British Awards. In the last year of this period, they decided to go for a permanent hiatus.
After the hiatus, all the members started to focus on their own career. Until now, the most successful members are Zayn with “Dusk Till Dawn” and “I don’t wanna live forever”, Harry Styles with “Watermelon sugar” and “As it was”. Other members are less well – known but still achieve moderate success such as “Back to you” performed by Louis Tomlinson and Bebe Rexha, or “For you” from Liam Payne collaborating with Rita Ora.
A “sudden” reunion
However, in 2024, Liam Payne died after falling from a hotel balcony in the capital city Buenos Aires, Argentina. The band reunited at Liam’s funeral to pay tribute to their fellow member. His death really made the band reappear to the public, reviving their music.
A lasting impression
All of the previously mentioned artists have one thing in common: outstanding success in their careers. However, not all of them can maintain their status for a long time, like the permanent hiatus of One Direction. Despite everything, they are still the icons that we all love and appreciate, and every once in a while, listen to some of their best songs.
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