What Makes You Beautiful is a 2011 song by English-Irish boy band One Direction. It served as their debut single and lead single from their debut studio album, Up All Night (2011). The song was written by Savan Kotecha, Rami Yacoub and Carl Falk. Production for the track was handled by Falk and Yacoub. What Makes You Beautiful was released on September 11, 2011, in Europe and Australia, through Syco Music. In North America, the song was released on March 13, 2012 through Sony Music Entertainment's Columbia Records label after Syco Music gained the rights to sign One Direction in that territory. The record labels behind the single are jointly owned by Simon Cowell; he created them following his departure from Sony BMG's Epic Records in 2010.
What Makes You Beautiful is an uptempo pop rock track which runs for three minutes and eighteen seconds. The song features guitar instrumentation throughout its intro sequence and chorus; it also contains elements of dance-pop. Lyrically, it is centered around the theme of young love and has been described as being a good old fashioned tearjerker. Upon its release, What Makes You Beautiful received generally positive reviews from music critics who praised its production and lyrical content. In the United Kingdom, it debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart—becoming both One Direction's first chart topper there and Syco Music's nineteenth UK number-one single overall—and remained atop for four consecutive weeks before being replaced by Flo Rida's Whistle. The song also peaked at number one in Ireland where it became One Direction's second chart topper there as well as becoming Columbia Records' first Irish number-one single since Beyoncé Knowles' Crazy in Love. Additionally, What Makes You Beautiful reached number one in seventeen other countries including Australia, Canada Denmark France Italy New Zealand Norway Poland Portugal Slovakia Sweden Switzerland United States Venezuela
One Direction achieved commercial success with What Makes You Beautiful, selling 176,000 digital copies within a week of release in August 2011[1]and topping both iTunes[2]and Amazon MP3 charts within 24 hours of becoming available.[3][4]The following month saw worldwide sales exceed 3 million copies.[5]Accordingly, What Makes You Beautiful became One Direction's biggest hit to date.[6]It has been certified quadruple platinum[7]in Australia