Raised in South Yorkshire, Louis Tomlinson (born Louis Austin) first auditioned for The X Factor in 2009 but didn’t get selected, so he returned in 2010. The judges felt instead of a soloist he would be better partnered with four other contestants ā Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne and Harry Styles ā and hence, One Direction was conceived. Although the vocal group placed third during The X Factor’s seventh season, they went on to become one of the decade’s biggest acts, scoring numerous No.1 hits like ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, ‘Story Of My Life’, ‘Drag Me Down’, ‘Little Things’ and the cover ‘One Way Or Another (Teenage Kicks)’.
In 2020, Tomlinson’s debut studio album Walls arrived, spawning five singles: ‘Two Of Us’, ‘Kill My Mind’, ‘We Made It’, ‘Don’t Let It Break Your Heart’ and the title track. Two years later, Tomlinson returned with the announcement of his sophomore album titled Faith in the Future and released the lead single ‘Bigger Than Me’ in September of that year. To support the new album, he also announced a string of world tour dates for 2023.