OMGOSH! OK, so, we're like totally head over heels in love with who we think is the Arab world's equivalent of One Direction!
Yes Directioners, we're talking about "The 5" (or The Five; they're awesome either way you spell it), who happen to be the latest boyband in the making.
The new kids on the block auditioned for celebrity judges Elissa, Ragheb Alama and Donia Samir Ghanem on The X Factor Arabia as solo acts, before the judges teamed them up to form what we now know (and love) as "The 5."
Rewind for a minute, that sounds just like how 1D came to life on The X Factor UK. Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson and now ex member Zayn Malik all auditioned separately, but judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole decided that putting them together as a boyband would work best. And it did.
It's only been a couple of months since Egyptian Ahmed Hassan, Moroccan Adel Echibi, Lebanese Kazem Chamas and the Algerian duo Said Karmouz and BMD (Mohamed Bouhezza) became bandmembers, but they've already gathered a huge following on social media.
Yep, with 27K Instagram followers, 11.5K on Twitter and their very own fan page on Facebook, we're predicting a successful future for the boys, whether they end up winning the singing competition or not. If you're wondering how to refer to their fans, it's "Fivers," y'all!
It's no wonder that when they stepped onto the Beirut stage Saturday night, performing live to the local audience and MBC’s pan-Arab television viewers, they melted girls' hearts and made boys green with envy, with their pearly white smiles, geek-chic fashion and angelic voices.
“The best thing for me as a woman is the pleasure of watching young men like you on stage,” said Elissa following their performance.
Cheryl Cole couldn't cope with how cute 1D were at the time, and we're feeling the same about our cute Arab doppelgängers!
By Arwad Khalifeh
