Liam Payne Reveals One Direction Will Celebrate 10th Anniversary With A Special Project

Liam Payne had exciting news to share: One Direction is preparing a surprise for its 10th anniversary after going on hiatus in 2016. He even gushed over Harry Styles’ new music!

Amid this pandemic, Liam Payne is offering a glimmer of hope: One Direction is doing something special for its 10th anniversary. “We’ve got a ten-year anniversary coming up so we’ve all been speaking together a lot over the last few weeks which has been really nice,” the 26-year-old singer revealed to The Sun in an interview published on April 9! This will be quite the treat for One Directioners, since the band broke hearts worldwide when it went on hiatus in Jan. 2016. Before that, 1D reigned as one of the most famous boy bands of the 2010’s after Liam, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik came together on The X Factor in 2010.

Apparently, a lot of ideas are being brought onto the table for this mysterious project! “To hear a lot of people’s voices and seeing old content and different things that we haven’t seen for a long time or never seen before, it’s very interesting,” Liam further told The Sun. He couldn’t tease too may details. “At the moment I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say,” he added. “There’s a number of different things that we are all working on to try and make happen and people are forwarding emails around.”

What’s most important for Liam, though, is spending quality (virtual) time with his former bandmates again. “But more than anything it’s just been a real good time for us to connect together again,” he added. The British heartthrob even had kind words to say about Harry’s new hit song, “Adore You,” which ended up becoming his first ever single to earn a No. 1 spot on Billboard’s “Pop Songs” chart. “It’s amazing and everyone’s had such great success. It’s been great hearing a lot of Harry’s stuff at the moment. ‘Adore You,’ I see it in the charts all the time,” Liam gushed. “I think he’s really found his sound at the moment which is a joy to watch.”

Liam didn’t say whether or not every former member is participating in this special project. Zayn hasn’t exactly appeared to be on the best terms with his former music crew after being the first to leave the band in 2015. In a 2019 interview, Louis admitted that it really “bugged” him after Zayn failed to show face at Louis’ concert debut of his song “Just Hold On” in 2016, shortly after his mother’s tragic passing. Then, Harry memorably referred to Zayn as “Ringo” — as in Ringo Starr, who left The Beatles — while hosting Saturday Night Live in Nov. 2019.

Regardless, Niall had high hopes that the band would reunite one day. During his Carpool Karaoke segment on The Late Late Show with James Corden that aired on March 12, Niall was forced to answer this question during a lie detector test: “Do you actually think One Direction will get back together?” Niall confidently answered “Yes” — and the polygraph didn’t say he was lying! It looks like Niall really wasn’t lying.