Five years ago, five scared guys, not sure of themselves, of their potential, still not very intimate with each other, sang Torn in front of a judge, to send their message: believe in us.
Yesterday, four guys, four men, now sure of themselves, of their potential, with five years of something even more intimate than a friendship behind them, sang Torn in front of their fans, to send their message: don’t stop believing in us, don’t stop believing in what we’ve become.
Torn has a special meaning for One Direction fans. It marks the beginning of everything. It marks the first step of a journey that will never end. The word “Torn” has a nostalgic taste on One Direction fans’ lips, the taste of nostalgia and pride. Just thinking about how far these boys have come, about how sure of themeselves they’ve become, how sure of what they created together, makes One Direction fans’ hearts burst with pride.
Harry, Liam, Louis and Niall knew it yesterday when, during their first Live Lounge ever, they sang the song with which everything started. They knew how meaningful that song was, both for their fans and for themselves; they knew about the tears their fans would have cried, tears that maybe they cried too. Yesterday, One Direction thanked us. With that performance they showed us that things changed, but at the same time, stayed the same. They showed us how far, with our support, they’ve come. They showed us how much, even after five years, they care about us, because we care about them. They told us that they weren’t alone along their journey, because, deep down, we were finding our way with them.
Harry, Louis, Liam and Niall aren’t those scared guys anymore, they aren’t those guys singing in front of Simon Cowell, with the fear of seeing their dreams come to an end. They aren’t scared about their future anymore. They aren’t scared of not being enough anymore, they aren’t scared of letting their voice be heard, of singing at the top of their voices. Those wonderful guys who yesterday sang Torn are changed persons. They’re more self-confident because together they lived their dreams, together they cried and smiled, together they’ve become a family, and, like a family, they pulled together when they lost a member, a fifth person who was missing yesterday during their performance of Torn, because he was there during the first two. But he wasn’t there yesterday. He wasn’t there because One Direction changed, and Torn is they symbol of this change. Torn is the symbol of the journey those guys made together and yes, they lost a member along the way, but they also found the strength to go on. Their changes find their origin in the strength that accompanied them during the last five years, a strength that not even the loss of a friend, of a brother, managed to placate.
Torn is the song One Direction sang to send us their message: we aren’t singing to celebrate the end of something, but to celebrate a new beginning. Torn has always been a symbol of beginning for them and it still is. One Direction were in five when they sang Torn for the first time, marking the beginning of their journey, and they were in four when they sang it yesterday, marking the beginning of something new, of a new era. The beginning of a different journey, because different are the experiences they have made, different are their goals. But not everything changed: their determination and their passion stayed the same. Louis, Niall, Liam and Harry aren’t the same persons they were five years ago, but, somehow, they kinda are: they’re the same four guys who can be something great, and they can be it together. Think about it. Their message is even more louder now: don’t stop believing in us, wait for us, we’ll be back soon, don’t leave our side.
