Fans compete to win Singapore its own One Direction Twitter emoji

SINGAPORE — One Direction’s first concert in Singapore set a Twitter record for the local entertainment industry with over 100,000 tweets for a one-day concert. But if that is not proof enough of how much their fans adore them, Singapore fans are invited to participate in a global Twitter contest to win the nation its own One Direction Twitter emoji. To boot, this partnership between Twitter and arguably the biggest boy band of the generation in a global competition is a world’s first. The aim is simple: To find the 10 countries with the biggest fans and reward them with their own One Direction Twitter emoji.

Fans from 140 countries, including Singapore, have only one day to make their mark, battling it out in a Twitter vote to show their loyalty using designated 1D country hashtags. For fans here, that would be the hashtag #1DSG, and they have 24 hours from 8am (Singapore time) today to out-tweet fellow fans across the globe. Results will be announced ‘live’ at http://twittermusic.wayinhub.com/Home.

“Only on Twitter could you bring together fans from right across the globe in celebration of the world’s biggest boy band,” said Rishi Jaitly, Twitter’s vice president of media, Asia Pacific and Middle East. “We’ve already had over 700 million One Direction Tweets in 2015 and we’ll be rooting for their passionate Singapore fans to Tweet their hearts out and earn one of our exclusive One Direction country emojis.”

He is, of course referring to six Twitter emojis featuring Louis Tomlinson (@Louis_Tomlinson), Harry Styles (@Harry_Styles), Niall Horan (@NiallOfficial), Liam Payne (@Real_Liam_Payne) that were released yesterday along with the band’s brand new album Made in the A.M.. Apparently, tweeting a @onedirection Twitter emoji is as simple as using the hashtags #1D, #MadeinTheAM, #1DLouis, #1DHarry, #1DNiall, #1DLiam; the corresponding 1D emoji will automatically appear after the Tweet. That, a fan might add, is what makes it beautiful.