Simon Cowell has hailed ‘The X Factor’ winners Rak-Su as the new One Direction.
The group – made up of childhood friends Mustafa Rahimtulla, Ashley Fongho, Jamaal Shurland and Myles Stephenson – stormed to victory on the show on Sunday night (03.12.17) – and now Simon thinks they have what it takes to become global superstars.
The music mogul told The Sun newspaper: "There’s an awful lot of artists in entertainment who appear nice in front of the cameras but behind them they’re monsters.
"Not these guys. These guys have that same thing as 1D, a certain class.
"The group are so important to the show for that reason.
"When you have people like these guys who have ambition it’s great and there’s this wonderful afterglow."
One Direction, who finished third in the 2010 series of the show, have gone on to sell more than 70 million records and in 2016 Forbes magazine listed them as the second-highest earning celebrities in the world, after Taylor Swift.
Rak-Su, all aged 25 and 26, claim to have already been inundated with attention from adoring fans.
Beatboxer Mustafa, 26, said: "Someone asked if they could sniff our socks.
"I don’t know how we were gonna make this happen but believe it or not we didn’t really explore that option."
The quartet beat 20-year-old singer/songwriter Grace Davies to be crowned this year’s ‘X Factor’ winners.
For the first time, both finalists sang original songs in the last show of the series, as they had done throughout the process, with Grace performing ‘Nothing But Words’, and ‘Too Young’, and Rak-Su impressing with their tracks ‘Touché’ and ‘Mona Lisa’.
And the group’s debut single will also be one of their own, ‘Dimelo’, which features Wyclef Jean and Naughty Boy, who they performed alongside on Saturday’s (02.12.17) show.
They also sang the track again to close out the final, with their fellow finalists joining them on stage to celebrate midway through the performance.
Proceeds from the single will go to children’s hospice charities Together for Short Lives and Shooting Star Chase.
Simon Cowell: Rak-Su could be new 1D
