In October 2011, the boys made their first trip to the Netherlands as part of the Bring 1D to Me competition. They did a signing, answered some questions and did an acoustic version of ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, with Niall playing his guitar.
In November 2011, the boys launched a special Sinterklaas (Santa Claus) competition just for Dutch fans. Via video, the boys explained what fans had to do.
Liam said, ‘Hi, Holland, we’ve heard that on 5 December you guys celebrate Sinterklaas. We also heard that you leave your shoe outside the door or in front of your chimney and, when you’re sleeping, he brings you presents.’
Harry continued, ‘So here’s the deal. We want you guys to upload a picture of your shoe with a nice little gift to us in it and in return we’re gonna give a small gift to you. Enjoy!’
To see what sort of things Dutch fans get up to, check out the 1dHolland channel on YouTube. There is a great video called ‘Bring 1D To Holland – My experience 04/05.10.201’, which is well worth checking out as it shows what happened during their one-day visit from a fan’s perspective. You’ll see Niall high-fiving the crowd and Liam wearing the Dutch flag on his back. You’ll also see them at the fan event itself, performing ‘What Makes You Beautiful’.
During an interview with the RTL TV station, the boys were asked about dating someone in front of a worldwide audience and Zayn replied, ‘If people are interested in your relationship, let them be, but I don’t think you should ever publically explain your relationship to people – that’s between you and your girlfriend.’
In the same interview, Louis said, ‘All our mothers have all our money and we still get pocket money every week. That’s the truth.’ Louis wasn’t being serious though and, when the interviewer said he didn’t believe him, Louis jokingly said, ‘How dare you!’ His comeback when the journalist mentioned the expensive houses they had bought was that ‘property’s cheap at the moment’.
The boys didn’t perform their Up All Night Tour in the Netherlands, but for the World Tour they had one show in Amsterdam’s Ziggo Zone on 3 May.
The Bring Me to 1D competition was run by Q-Music radio station, who invited the Netherland’s biggest One Direction fans to their studio to take a 1D exam. The exam was really tough and the girls with the two highest scores made it through to the final round. They were asked even harder questions and, after a tense wait, Jessica was announced as the winner who would be going to New York.
Roo is 15 and from Eindhoven. Her favourite member of One Direction is Harry Styles and, if she had to choose a favourite song, she would have to pick ‘She’s Not Afraid’. She has taken part in the 1D flash mobs in her country and goes to 1D camp too. Roo explains, ‘We have a 1Dcamp four times a year. Directioners come along to a place for three days, and they sleep in a house and do some 1D-related things. We perform like the boys for each other and play some games to try and win 1D prizes.’
One of the flash mobs took place in Utrecht on 26 February 2012. It was organised by @onednews, with Directioners Laura and Kim organising the choreography and Marlous and Iris filming it. Forty Dutch Directioners took part.
Emma is 15 and from Emmen in the northeast of the Netherlands. She explains how she became a Directioner: ‘I live in the Netherlands, so I couldn’t watch The X Factor on my TV and I didn’t follow the shows. However, I was searching on the Internet and a video of the boys showed up. I watched the video and liked it, so I listened to them for the whole week. A month later, my best friend told me she liked a boyband and I searched for them on YouTube. Turned out it was the same band! I searched for more videos and more information about each boy and became a real fan.’
When Emma found out that the boys were coming to her country on 5 October 2011, she was thrilled. In the weeks leading up to their visit, fans had to play a series of games organised by their promoters in the Netherlands and the more games they played, the bigger the chance they would have to get a code. If you had one of the codes, you could meet the boys.
‘My friend and I won a code, so we could meet the boys,’ Emma says. ‘There were only 500 codes, so we were very lucky! I travelled to the other side of Holland. Before we went in the Hotel Arena in Amsterdam, we got a badge and a blank signature card. The presenter asked the boys a few questions and then they sang “What Makes You Beautiful”. It was great! Their voices were even better in real life and everyone was so happy and kind to each other! After an hour and a half, we could have a little talk with them and let them sign our card. My friend and I made little bags with presents for the boys and we gave it to them. They were so nice to me and they looked even better with only a few metres between us! But I was nervous – too nervous. I didn’t say very much, but the boys tried to let me feel at ease – very sweet. Louis even called me “love”! It was the best day of my life and I’m so glad that I had the chance to meet them!’
Josca is 17 and from Meppel, also in the northeast of the Netherlands. And she also met the boys at the Bring 1D To Me Event on 5 October 2011. She took with her five drawings to give to the boys and a collage made up of scanned images of the five drawings so that the boys could sign that and she could bring it home as a memento. ‘With a tube filled with the five drawings and the collage in my left hand, and a camera in the other hand, my friend and I joined the crowd of teenage girls at the hotel,’ she says. ‘It was, like, the loudest crowd I’ve ever heard; I didn’t know girls could produce such a loud noise! I covered my ears with the tube and my arm when the boys came on the stage to answer some questions. It was deafening. After the question-and-answer (I couldn’t hear anything of what One Direction had said because of the noise), my friend and I were waiting in line for the signing. I was really nervous.’
At the signing table, Josca was scared she wouldn’t be able to give her drawings to the boys because security were strict and were only letting everyone have one thing signed. ‘At first I put the collage with all the drawings in front of Liam on the table,’ Josca continues. ‘I remember I didn’t even say hi because I was nervous – how rude! Anyway, Liam immediately looked at it and I heard him saying, “Wait, are those drawings?” Niall, who was sitting next to him, screamed, “What the hell!” I laughed and showed them the original drawings I was holding in my hands. Niall mumbled something as I gave Liam and him the drawings I’d made of them. He looked at me with his blue eyes wide open and I can’t even describe how I felt at that moment. It was an amazing feeling. He assured me several times he was going to frame his drawing. Liam had put his drawing on a chair behind him. Meanwhile, I’d laid the other drawings on the table in front of the lads because I was scared it would be over too soon, as the security were pushing the girls in line. Zayn didn’t do anything but bite his lip and hold the drawing in front of him with his arms oustretched as he looked at it proudly. Louis looked at me with a pretty weird look on his face while Harry was talking to me.
‘I said something like, “I am so happy right now!” When I was about to arrive at Harry, he looked at me with sparkles in his green eyes and I got carried away a little, I have to admit. He asked me, “Did you draw this?” holding my drawing in his hands. I said yes and he answered, “You’re so talented!” I actually couldn’t hear what he said the first time because of screaming girls behind us in front of the stage, so I put my face a bit closer to his and he said it again, “You’re so talented!” I then answered him again, “Thank you so much! I think I spent around 10 hours on this one and the others even more!” Harry was surprised and said, “Thank you, thank you!” The last thing I said to him when I had to leave the stage again was a little, “You’re welcome”, and then it was over.
‘My friend and I went outside and we couldn’t stop talking about it. My mum went shopping in Amsterdam and, after we got out of the hotel, I called her, being all happy and jumpy. I just couldn’t believe that some people I’d admired for such a long time, admired me for a moment, for what I’d done. When my mum arrived at the hotel she hugged me tightly and told me she was so happy for me; she actually cried tears of happiness.’
To see the boys with Josca’s drawings, check out the picture section in this book.
Josca concludes, ‘The next day I was looking through the photos my friend had taken and wondered what the guys would be doing with the drawings. I got really scared their management might have taken them away, but then the pictures appeared on the Internet. The boys were each holding up the drawings I had done of them – it was unbelievable and I burst into tears. My mum wondered what was going on!’
Josca would love to meet the boys again one day and her ultimate dream is to get to sing with them one day.