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What Makes You Beautiful is One Direction's debut single from their debut album Up All Night. It was released on September 11, 2011 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and 14 February 2012 in the United States. It is the band's signature song and one of the best selling singles of all time.

It has been certified double-platinum in the US after selling 2,060,303 units since February 2012. The single peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on the UK singles chart.

The music video, uploaded to YouTube on August 19 2011, was, at one point, one of the twenty most viewed videos of all time, after garnering more than 600 million views since its premiere.

Background

What Makes You Beautiful was written by Rami Yacoub, Carl Falk and Savan Kotecha, and produced by Yacoub and Falk. The song is about a girl who is attractive, yet she doesn't believe it herself, and, as a result, feels insecure when complimented.

What Makes You Beautiful has a similar melody and guitar riff to Grease's 'Summer Nights' and the guitar riff is also similar to the Beatles "Twist and Shout".

Criticism

Critics have questioned whether the song's lyrical content is more harmful to female self esteem than encouraging. The most prominent critic was US talk show host Steven Colbert, who stated in 2012: "What Makes You Beautiful” isn’t just catchy, it has a great message. “You don’t know you’re beautiful. That’s what makes you beautiful. Great dating advice. Remember girls, low self esteem – very attractive to men. The boys are singing “You don’t know you’re beautiful, that’s what makes you beautiful.” But they’ve just told the girl she’s beautiful. So since she now knows it, she’s no longer beautiful! It goes deeper! She’s listening to the song, too. So she knows she’s not beautiful. Therefore, following the syllogism of the song, she’s instantly beautiful again! It’s like an infinite fractal recursion, a flickering quantum state of both hot and not.[1]"

Lyrics

[Liam]
You’re insecure
Don’t know what for
You’re turning heads when you walk through the door
Don’t need make up
To cover up
Being the way that you are is enough

[Harry]
Everyone else in the room can see it
Everyone else but you

[All]
Baby you light up my world like nobody else
The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed
But when you smile at the ground it ain’t hard to tell
You don’t know (oh oh)
You don’t know you’re beautiful
If only you saw what I can see
You’d understand why I want you so desperately
Right now I’m looking at you and I can’t believe
You don’t know (oh oh)
You don’t know you’re beautiful
(Oh oh)

[Harry]
That's what makes you beautiful

[Zayn]
So c-come on.
You got it wrong.
To prove I'm right
I put it in a so-o-ng.
I don't know why
You're being shy,
And turn away when I look into your eye-eye-eyes

[Harry]
Everyone else in the room can see it
Everyone else but you

[All]
Baby you light up my world like nobody else
The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed
But when you smile at the ground it ain’t hard to tell
You don’t know (oh oh)
You don’t know you’re beautiful
If only you saw what I can see
You’ll understand why I want you so desperately
Right now I’m looking at you and I can’t believe
You don’t know (oh oh)
You don’t know you’re beautiful
(Oh oh),

[Harry]
That's what makes you beautiful

[Niall & Louis]
Na na na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na

[Harry]
Baby you light up my world like nobody else
The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed
But when you smile at the ground it ain’t hard to tell

[All]
You don't know,
Oh oh,
You don't know you're beautiful,

Baby you light up my world like nobody else,
The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,
But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell,
You don't know,
Oh oh,
You don't know you're beautiful (Oh),
If only you saw what I can see,
You'll understand why I want you so desperately (desperately),
Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe,
You don't know,
Oh oh,
You don't know you're beautiful,
Oh oh,
You don't know you're beautiful,
Oh oh,

[Harry]
That's what makes you beautiful

Release

"What Makes You Beautiful" debuted at number one on the Irish Singles Chart on September 15, 2011. It held on to its spot for four weeks. The singles B-side, "Na Na Na" also entered the Irish Singles Chart at number twenty-seven. "What Makes You Beautiful" re-entered the top ten in its sixteenth week of release and has spent twenty-five weeks on the chart. "What Makes You Beautiful" became the fourteenth best-selling single of 2011 on the Irish Singles Chart.

In the United Kingdom, "What Makes You Beautiful" received the most pre-orders for a Sony Music Entertainment single.[2] It sold 82,000 copies in its first two days, and rose to 100,000 by the third day.[3] The single entered the UK Singles Chart at number one on September 18, 2011, shifting 153,965 copies that week. It was the highest first-week UK sales for any song in 2011 at the time. "What Makes You Beautiful" was the twentieth best-selling single of 2011, moving 540,000 copies.[4] On 8 October 2016, the Official Charts announced What Makes You Beautiful had become a million-selling single, only the 167th single in UK chart history to pass the seven-figure milestone.[5]

The single debuted at number one on the Scottish Singles Chart.

"What Makes You Beautiful" debuted at number fifteen on the Australian Singles Chart and has since peaked at number seven in its ninth week.[6] The single has been certified triple platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for selling 210,000 copies.[7] "Na Na Na" also charted on the Australian Singles Chart of November 28, 2011 at number eighty-four.

On the New Zealand Singles Chart, the single entered at number sixteen, then jumped to number three the following week. It peaked at number two in its fourth and fifth weeks, and spent eleven consecutive weeks in the New Zealand Singles Chart top ten. In its fifth week of release it was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) for 7,500 sales, and in its ninth was certified platinum for 15,000 sales.

The single debuted on the Canadian Hot 100 at number nine, while debuting at number two on the digital songs chart with 19,000 downloads sold, the biggest debut for a first time charted artist since the Stereos's "Summer Girl" entered at number two in June 2009. The single has been certified gold by Music Canada (MC) for 40,000 sales.

In the United States, "What Makes You Beautiful" became the highest Hot 100 début for a U.K. act since 1998. The single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number twenty-eight, and at number twelve on the Hot Digital Songs Chart, selling 132,000 downloads in its first week. It currently peaked at number four in Hot 100.[8]

In June 2018, the single was certified 2x platinum with 1.2 million copies sold.

Music video

Music Video Information
One_Direction_-_What_Makes_You_Beautiful Released August 19, 2011
Length 3:27
Director John Urbano
Production Co
Choreographer
Filmed July 2011
Location Malibu, California
VEVO views 1,450,675,818 (as of July 20, 2023)

Background

BTS-2010 (1)

One Direction, Behind the Scenes What Makes You Beautiful 12/7/11

"What Makes You Beautiful" is One Direction's debut music video. It was directed by John Urbano and filmed in Malibu, California, in July 2011, over two days. According to Urbano, the video is about "...these five guys who are on a road trip meeting up with three friends, who happen to be girls, they meet up at the beach". Louis further described the premise by saying, "It's like a group of girls who are friends, but there's one in particular that's really hot, but she actually doesn't know it. That's the whole point of the song, like she's so hot, but she doesn't realize it... but we do!"

Release

The video premiered in the UK on August 19, 2011 with a five day countdown leading up to it. On each of the five days preceding the video's premiere, One Direction posted a teaser trailer of the video on YouTube. Each teaser showed footage from the video and behind the scenes, and one member of the band announcing how many days were left until the video premiere.

On February 10, 2012, E! News showed a clip of the music video, but the music video officially premiered in the United States until the next day, February 11, 2012, on Nickelodeon.

On 30 October 2018, seven years after premiering, the video surpassed one billion views on Youtube. It is their first of two videos to achieve this, the second being Drag Me Down, which has a total of 1,043,249,402 views.

Popular culture

  • What Makes You Beautiful is considered One Direction's signature song and is the track most people associate the band with.
  • The 1975 covered What Makes You Beautiful during their BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge set in 2013.
  • The Piano Guys covered What Makes You Beautiful in 2012. The YouTube video of their cover has garnered over 43 million views. They would later cover "Story of My Life".
  • In the US, the song is featured in TLC's advert for their 2012 summer wedding reality shows, as well as playing a small portion of the song during The Voice's commercials.
  • The song was covered on Glee by Kevin McHale, Damian Mcginty, Chord Overstreet, Samuel Larsen, and Harry Shum for the episode "Prom-asaurus". The episode premiered on May 8, 2012.
  • The song is featured on Just Dance 4, and holds the 2016 Guinness World Record for 'Most Popular Dance Game Track'.
  • Harry Styles covered the song on his debut solo world tour in 2017 and 2018

Tour Performances

Being the band's debut single, the song has been performed on all of One Direction's tours so far. Harry Styles also covered the song on his 2017/8 solo arena tour.

Credits

  • Tom Coyne — mastering
  • Carl Falk — writing, production, programming, instruments, guitar
  • Serban Ghenea — mixing
  • Wes Farrell — writing
  • John Hanes — mix engineering
  • Savan Kotecha — writing
  • Phil Seaford — mix engineering assistance
  • Bert Berns — writing
  • Rami Yacoub — writing, production, programming, instruments, bass

Release history

Region Format Date Label
Australia Digital September 11, 2011 Syco
Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Portugal
Romania
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
CD single September 12, 2011
Australia Radio October 4, 2011
CD single November 25, 2011
Germany
Canada Digital January 31, 2012 Columbia
United States February 14, 2012
Radio February 28, 2012

Trivia

  • While shooting the video, Louis was pulled over twice for driving too slow.
  • Its working title was "You Don't Know You're Beautiful."
  • It is believed that Louis dated one of the girls in the video but this statement has never been confirmed.

References

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