Spain will always be a special place for the boys because it was the first place they travelled to as a group. They had to go to Simon’s rented villa in Marbella, Spain for the ‘judges house’ round of The X Factor. It was there that they sang together for the first time and it was there that they found out that Simon had chosen them for The X Factor live shows.
Niall, in particular, loves to go on holiday with his family and friends to Marbella. During one holiday, the paparazzi photographed him at The Ocean Club having fun in the pool. The press tried to link him to some girls who were there but he was only being friendly and chatting to them.
Niall was actually on holiday in Spain when he got the phone call from The X Factor to say that he had been chosen to audition in front of Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole, Louis Walsh and Katy Perry. Thankfully, his audition wasn’t until he got home.
Spanish fans were so excited when they found out that the boys would be performing in Barcelona on 22 May and in Madrid on 24 and 25 May on their World Tour 2013. They rushed out to get tickets and the tickets quickly sold out. Sixteen-year-old Isa didn’t manage to get tickets but is hoping that she will get the opportunity to see them while they are in Spain. ‘We are proud of where we come from because the boys love Spain and in an interview they said that Spain was a place that will always be in their hearts,’ she says. ‘If I don’t meet them in 2013, I won’t give up hope. I will meet them one day.’
Esther is 15 and from Arroyomolinos, a small town on the outskirts of Madrid. Her favourite 1D song is ‘Same Mistakes’. Her best Directioner friend is called Irene; they live far away from each other so keep in contact on Facebook. They like to stay up really late watching the boys on award shows and chatting to one another.
Esther says, ‘One day, Twitter was crazy about a possible One Direction visit to Spain. I thought it was a rumour but, when a radio announcer confirmed it, I got nervous and excited. I was smiling for two weeks, waiting anxiously for their arrival to my country. But I had a problem one day before they came. The TV programme El Hormiguero announced they would be appearing on the Halloween programme. The TV studios were too far away for me to travel on my own, so I needed someone go with me, but no one would. Irene couldn’t come to Madrid and my friends wanted to go out. “It’s Halloween!” they said. I was so upset and went to bed crying myself to sleep.
‘My sister works in Madrid and the next day she rang me to say that Harry, Niall, Liam, Louis and Zayn were staying in the hotel where she works – the Eurostars Madrid Tower hotel. I decided that I didn’t want to miss out and so, as soon as I got home from work, I got changed and jumped on the bus for the hour-long journey into the centre of Madrid.
‘I met a girl on the metro called Andrea. She had a photo of One Direction as her mobile’s screensaver, so I guessed she was Directioner. I was talking with her when we arrived at the TV studios, where I saw hundreds of girls screaming and crying. I didn’t understand why as the boys hadn’t even arrived yet. Andrea was allowed into the building because one of her friends was taking dancing lessons there and so invited me to go with her to see behind the set where the boys would be later. I felt so privileged. Afterwards we had to make our way back outside to see the boys arrive.’
Esther and Andrea saw the boys arrive in their cars and then the boys went inside to film the programme. They had to wait outside with the other fans. After an hour, the boys appeared at an open window and waved at the girls waiting for them. Esther felt like she was dreaming – she was seeing them for real, rather than on a computer screen, for the first time.
Since that day, Esther has been to many 1D events and is currently rehearsing for a flash mob, which is happening in the summer. The fans in Spain regularly meet up and play games together and chat about 1D. At their last meeting there were more than 110 girls and boys there. She was so excited when she found out they would be performing in Spain on 24 May 2013 and rushed out to get a ticket.
She says, ‘I think Spanish fans are different to the other Directioners because we are so dedicated even though we get to see them hardly ever. We still support them, because they deserve it. We have to wait all night to watch them on USA TV programmes or see their tweetcams. It is crazy to buy a CD when you do not know if its singers are real! Spanish Directioners have to translate all their interviews, songs and thank-you videos too, which can be very time consuming.
‘Even without understanding them, living in the same time zone or seeing them every month, we stay being Directioners!’
Isabel is 17 and from Soria in northern Spain. Her favourite song is ‘One Thing’ and she has a weakness for Niall. She attends the Spanish fan conventions and her first One Direction concert was in May 2013 for Take Me Home. She met the boys for the first time on 31 October 2012. She says, ‘It was the first time they were in Spain as a group, to promote their album, so I was really excited. The previous day, it had been announced who had won the Go1Den Ticket but it wasn’t me – I had been dreaming about it for weeks so I was really sad to find out that I hadn’t won. All wasn’t lost though: my mom gave me permission to go to the hotel they were staying at during their visit to Spain, so I thought I still might get a chance to see them.’
Isa arrived at the hotel at 9.30am with her friends, knowing that they would have a long wait ahead of them. Isa recalls, ‘We passed the whole morning talking with the press, TV or anyone who passed by. I talked with Anne Igartiburu, a Spanish TV host, and I gave her a letter from my best friend to the boys. She told me she’d give it to them during the interview she was doing with them in the hotel. When she came back outside afterwards, she told me the boys had the letter. Even after waiting for five hours, I still didn’t know if I would be able to see them, but knowing they had the letter made me really happy.
‘The hours passed by and we were still there waiting for them, doing everything their security said we had to do. We wanted to see them even if it was behind a fence. We were so cold that we even asked one of the security men if he had a spare blanket but he just walked away laughing, thinking we were joking. Finally, at 7pm, some men started to put more fences up and told us to sit on the ground and that, if we did that, they’d come out. I’ve never seen a crowd sit down so quickly before.’
Finally, they began to see movement inside the hotel and Niall came outside, yelling, ‘YEAH!’ and just being playful. ‘I’ve always told myself that I wouldn’t be one of the fans who yells when they see the boys,’ says Isa, ‘but I couldn’t help it, it was too amazing.
‘After Niall, there was Liam and Zayn, waving in every direction, and Louis and Harry messing around. They were all smiling a lot; it turned out that they had wanted to come out to see us since the morning but hadn’t been allowed. They began to salute us, and all I could think about was, “They are real, they are here, they aren’t a dream, I’m dying.” Then they came to the side where I was just behind the fence in the front row. A group at my right started singing the chorus of “Live While We’re Young” and Louis told them to sing louder while Harry blew kisses at everyone. Niall, Zayn and Liam greeted us all.
‘Then I came up with the worst idea ever. I wasn’t thinking logically. I put my head between two bars of the fence (thankfully, it didn’t get stuck) and, with my hand, started gesturing to the boys. Liam saw me and started laughing and copying my hand gestures. Harry blew a kiss at me and it felt unbelievable. Their security men tried to get the boys back in the hotel but the fans by me started singing “Live While We’re Young” again and Niall came over and told us to sing louder, so we did. And when we finished, he yelled, “YEAH!” again before a security man took him indoors.
‘As soon as they had gone, we all hugged each other, whether we knew each other or not. We cried with excitement about what had just happened but also with a bit of sadness because it was over. As I made my way to the hotel with my friends, my face was hurting because I had been smiling so much!’