+the news

One Direction mistaken for Westlife in Africa

Written by . Published: January 31 2013

The stars of One Direction were left red-faced during a charity trip to Ghana after locals mistook them for Irish group Westlife.


Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson traveled to Africa in January (13) to film a music video for their new charity single, a cover of Blondie's One Way Or Another.


The singers witnessed poverty firsthand as they visited schools and slums, but Payne admits there was also a light-hearted moment when a group of youngsters confused them for another boy band.


Payne tells Britain's Daily Mirror, "In the slum there were these lads that we were playing football with. They turned around to us and were like, 'Ah, Westlife, Westlife!' So, Westlife are bigger than us over there. That's something we've gotta achieve..."


Malik recalls, "In the slum, people didn't know who we were."


One Direction will not receive royalties for the track as all proceeds will be donated to Britain's Comic Relief charity.


Horan says, "We didn't want to make a massive expensive video because that's just a waste of money. So we kinda made it ourselves," while Tomlinson adds, "By buying the song, together we'll change people's lives. What an amazing thing to do. Buy music that you like and change lives."


The boys' rendition of One Way Or Another is released on Thursday (31Jan13).

Error! Unable to retrieve any Images!