One Direction Celebrates Eight-Year Anniversary: See the Best Tweets

The X Factor, 2010: a group of hopeful teenage warblers came together to form one of the most influential boy bands of all time: One Direction. Eight years later, on Monday (July 23), Directioners received the surprise of their lives when the group’s Twitter account went online for the first time in months to celebrate the band-iversary.

"A whole lotta history... this Monday is an important anniversary for the guys, it’s been #8YearsofOneDirection," the group’s Twitter profile captioned an image of bandmates Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Niall Horan, along with the honorary hashtag. To celebrate the monument, the account has been posting lyrics to the English-Irish pop heartthrobs’ biggest hits, including classics like “Steal My Girl” and “Night Changes” to singalongs “They Don’t Know About Us” and “Gotta Be You.”

Joining in on the digital celebration, the bandmates also shared a heartfelt message on media. “#8YearsOfOneDirection Where has the time gone!? Thank you so much to every single person who’s ever supported us. Big love!” wrote Tomlinson, joking, “And remember if it’s by one direction and it’s a banger I probably wrote on it.”

Payne followed suit with a tweet of his own, writing, “#8YearsOfOneDirection what an incredible 8 years it’s been with my brothers! Thank you to all the fans that are still supporting and following our journeys. Love LP.” Not long after, Horan sent this loving message to 1D followers everywhere: “Wow! 8 years of amazing memories with the lads. Thank you so much for standing by us for all this time.”

Scroll down for some of the best tweets for #8YearsOfOneDirection:

Noticeably absent from the festivities, however, were Styles and former member ZAYN, the latter of which departed the group in 2015 to pursue a solo career. Later on that year, One Direction announced their hiatus as each member embarked on individual music efforts.

Photo: Getty Images