One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful

“What Makes You Beautiful” – Single by One Direction from the album Up All Night
B-side: “Na Na Na”
Released: 11 September 2011
Recorded: July 2011
Studio: Malibu, California
Kinglet & Cosmos Studios, Stockholm, Sweden
Label: SycoColumbia
Songwriters: Savan Kotecha, Rami Yacoub, Carl Falk
Producers: Rami Yacoub, Carl Falk
Charted No.4 in US and No.1 in UK

This is their first single. It received its first airplay on August 10, 2011 and was released a month later on September 11, 2011. Speaking to BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles, band member Harry Styles said: “When we were recording in the studio we knew instantly that we wanted this track to be our first single.”

The accompanying music video, directed by John Urbano, shows One Direction spending time on a beach in Malibu, California. Uploaded to YouTube on 19 August 2011, it has accumulated more than 1.4 billion views and garnered the group three MTV Video Music Awards at the 2012 ceremony. One Direction performed the song live on televised shows, at awards ceremonies, and on all four of their major concert tours: Up All Night Tour (2011–12), Take Me Home Tour (2013), Where We Are Tour (2014), and On the Road Again Tour (2015); band member Harry Styles later performed the song on his 2017 and 2021 solo tours.

Lyrics
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
Everyone else in the room can see it
Everyone else but you
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
That’s what makes you beautiful
So come on, you got it wrong
To prove I’m right, I put it in a song
I don’t know why, you’re being shy
And turn away when I look into your eye eye eyes
Everyone else in the room can see it
Everyone else but you
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
That’s what makes you 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
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
You don’t know you’re beautiful, oh oh
That’s what makes you beautiful