Shortly afterwards it was confirmed that One Direction had been signed by Cowell to a reported £2 million Syco Records record contract. One Direction finished in third place and immediately after the final, their song " Forever Young", which would have been released if they had won The X Factor, was leaked onto the internet. The group quickly gained popularity in the UK.
Simon Cowell later commented that the performance convinced him that the group "were confident, fun, like a gang of friends, and kind of fearless as well." Within the first four weeks of the live shows, they were Cowell's last act in the competition. For their qualifying song at "judges' houses", and their first song as a group, One Direction sang an acoustic version of " Torn". He was eliminated before the final round of the competition, but judges Nicole Scherzinger and Simon Cowell grouped him with fellow competitors Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payneand Louis Tomlinson to form a new act for the remainder of the show, called One Direction. Upon auditioning for The X Factor, Malik stated: "I was looking for an experience". He sang " Let Me Love You" by Mario as his audition song, and was accepted into the next round.
In 2010, 17-year-old Malik auditioned in Manchester for the seventh series of reality-television competition The X Factor.