2011–2014: Origin and debut 5 Seconds of Summer formed in late 2011 when
Luke Hemmings,
Michael Clifford, and
Calum Hood, who all attended the same high-school, Norwest Christian College, began posting videos of themselves performing covers of popular songs together on Hemmings'
YouTube channel. In December 2011, the trio invited drummer
Ashton Irwin, and the four-man lineup was completed. The band's name was created by Clifford. Hood said the name was arbitrary, not created with any deep meaning intended. On 3 December 2011, the band played their first show at Sydney pub, Annandale Hotel, reportedly playing for only 12 people. In 2020, the band paid homage to their first performance in their "
Old Me" music video, which featured a video clip of their Annandale Hotel performance and a recreation of the show. on 25 November 2012The band attracted interest from major music labels and publishers and signed a publishing deal with
Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Despite having no promotion apart from on
Facebook and
Twitter, The EP was also co-produced by Chapman. The band released their first single "Out of My Limit" on 19 November 2012. The video clip received over 100,000 views within the first 24 hours. In December 2012, the band embarked on a songwriting trip to London where they wrote with various artists including
McFly, Roy Stride of
Scouting for Girls,
Nick Hodgson of
Kaiser Chiefs,
Jamie Scott,
Jake Gosling,
Steve Robson and
James Bourne of
Busted. As their fame and dedication to the band grew, the band members eventually dropped out of school, with Clifford having left school two years prior in Year 10 and later completing a year at
TAFE. Hood dropped out in Year 11 in 2012 due to the band's move to London. Irwin had already graduated from
Richmond High School in 2012, and studied music performance at a TAFE college, before choosing to leave to pursue the band. Hemmings continued with
distance education up until 2013, dropping out in the final year of secondary schooling: year 12, due to the commitment of the band. On 14 February 2013, it was announced that 5 Seconds of Summer would support
One Direction on their worldwide
Take Me Home Tour. The tour kicked off at
the O2 Arena in
London on 23 February 2013, and 5 Seconds of Summer joined One Direction for shows in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, including seven shows at
Allphones Arena in 5 Seconds of Summer's home town of
Sydney. While on a break from the Take Me Home Tour, 5 Seconds of Summer returned home to Australia where they played a national headlining tour, with all dates selling out within minutes. It was around this time when the band began to gain popularity and become more well-known. On 21 November 2013, the band announced that they had signed to
Capitol Records. On 5 February 2014, 5 Seconds of Summer listed their debut major label single "
She Looks So Perfect" for pre-order on the
iTunes Store. On 5 March 2014, it was announced that 5 Seconds of Summer would join One Direction again, supporting them on their
Where We Are Tour in the US, Canada, UK and Europe.
2014: 5 Seconds of Summer and LIVESOS In late March 2014, the band's single "She Looks So Perfect" was released in UK. Despite spending only one day on top in the British
iTunes store and ending its week in the lower end of the top 10, 5 Seconds of Summer became the fourth Australian band to have a UK number-one single, and the first to do so in 14 years. On 9 April 2014, their third EP
She Looks So Perfect debuted at number 2 on the
Billboard 200 Chart. On 9 May 2014, they released their second single, "
Don't Stop". It peaked at number one in 4 countries, debuted at number two on the UK Singles Chart and was in the top 10 of 8 countries overall.
Billboard said that, "In the vein of
Green Day's "
She" and
Blink-182's "
All The Small Things", "Don't Stop" is 5SOS' bid for a deceptively charming pop-punk anthem, with lyrics that are stickily sweet in their awkward flirtatiousness. The bridge could be more polished, but that hook is a highlight of the whole album." On 15 June 2014, the band released their fourth EP ''Don't Stop'' which was unavailable for purchase in the US, Canada and Mexico. in Sydney, Australia on 30 April 2014 On 13 May 2014, the band announced that their
debut self-titled album would be released on 27 June 2014 in Europe and Australia. The album debuted on the top of the Billboard 200 Chart, peaked at number one in 13 countries, and peaked in the Top 10 of 26 countries. On 15 July 2014, the band released their third single, "
Amnesia".
Billboard described the track as "a surprisingly affecting vocal performance and the most searing lyrics on the album. [...] Taking older listeners back to the relative heartache of dissolving high school romance." Billboard further stated that "'Amnesia' demonstrates the versatility of 5SOS, and one wonders why it's buried at the end of the group's debut album." On 12 October 2014, the band released their fourth single, "
Good Girls", and the music video logged over two million views within 48 hours. On 16 November 2014, they released their sixth EP
Good Girls which topped the UK iTunes Chart. The band released a cover song "
What I Like About You" by American rock band
The Romantics as the first single from their live album
LIVESOS. The band released their first live album,
LIVESOS, on 15 December 2014.
2015–2016: Sounds Good Feels Good In May 2015, the band embarked on their first headlining world tour, the
Rock Out With Your Socks Out Tour, taking place across arenas in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and North America. On 17 July 2015, the band released "
She's Kinda Hot" as the first single from their second studio album. On 12 August, they announced that their second studio album was titled
Sounds Good Feels Good. On 28 August, they released their seventh EP, ''She's Kinda Hot
, in the UK and Ireland only. On 9 October, they released "Hey Everybody!" as the second single and announced their Sounds Live Feels Live World Tour. Sounds Good Feels Good'' was released worldwide on 23 October 2015. It became the band's second number one in their home country and the first in the United Kingdom. In the United States, 5 Seconds of Summer became the first band (not vocal) to have their first two full-length albums debut at the top of the charts. The band released their third single "
Jet Black Heart" on 17 December 2015, together with a music video which featured some of their fans. In 2016, the band embarked on their Sounds Live Feels Live World Tour which included sold-out stadiums and arenas across North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. , Italy, during their 2016 headlining tour Sounds Live Feels Live On 3 June 2016, the band announced their single "
Girls Talk Boys". The song was included on the
Ghostbusters (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) and was released on 15 July. On 2 December 2016, the band announced the release of their B-sides and rarities, titled This Is Everything We Ever Said, to celebrate their fifth anniversary as a band. After years of intense touring and the completion of the successful Sounds Live Feels Live World Tour in October 2016, the band announced that "2016 for 5SOS [had] ended," and that they would be taking the remainder of the year to rest and develop the sound for their next studio album. The break lasted nearly two years, with Hood later stating "After six years of being on the road, we needed to get our heads right for the longevity of the band." Hemmings later revealed that the band had briefly considered breaking up due to their intense schedules, stating: "'Seven years as a band may seem like a long time, but we were teenagers when we started." He further went on to say: "We had to look at each other and say 'are we going to stop now, or do this forever? Because if we continue, then we have to go further than we ever have before.'"
2017–2018: Youngblood On 13 January 2017, the band was featured on Japanese rock band
One Ok Rock's song, "
Take What You Want". On 11 May 2017, the band announced they would be playing at several music festivals across Asia, Europe, and South America from August to September 2017, including Brazil's
Rock in Rio. The band spent the remainder of the year creating their third studio album with
Alexandra Tamposi,
Andrew Wotman,
Rivers Cuomo,
Andrew Goldstein, and various others. In a Billboard interview, Irwin stated that outside of working on the album, the band spent time "redefining who [they were] as adult men" after years of intense touring. On 22 February 2018, the band released the single "
Want You Back" which reached several charts in over 15 countries and peaked in the top 40 on thirteen charts, including the US, Ireland, and Australia. Following the release of "Want You Back", the band announced they would be embarking on a 2018 promotional tour entitled 5SOS III. The tour sold out within approximately three minutes with the critics praising it as "a nice teaser for what [would] be a much larger-scale fall tour." On 22 May 2018, the album's
title track was released as the second single. "Youngblood" achieved massive worldwide success, and peaked at number one in Australia in May 2018 and stayed on top of the
ARIA Chart for eight consecutive weeks. It also stayed at number one on
Official New Zealand Music Chart for four consecutive weeks, peaked at number 4 on the
UK Singles Chart, and became the band's first single to reach Canada's Top 5 and the US
Billboard Hot 100's top 10. In the radio format, it became the band's first single to peak at number one in the US's Pop Songs chart and Adult Pop Songs chart, and Canada's Contemporary Hit Radio chart. The song peaked at number one on US
top 40 radio, making 5 Seconds of Summer the first Australian band to top the chart in 21 years. As of 2020, "Youngblood" is certified 11× platinum in Australia, 4× platinum in Poland, 3× platinum in New Zealand, 2× platinum in the US, the UK, Norway, Denmark and Sweden and platinum in Canada, Belgium, and Italy. On 1 June 2018, the band announced that the release date of the album was moved forward to 15 June 2018.
Youngblood was a commercial success and debuted at number one in Australia and the US Billboard 200, becoming their third consecutive number one album in both countries. It debuted in the top 3 in the UK and seven other countries. Overall, the album reached the top 10 of 20 countries. The band performed their lead single "Want You Back" on
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on 11 April 2018 and on
The Voice (U.S. season 14) on 8 May 2018. On 25 May, the group performed for selected fans for a
Spotify Fans First Event in Sydney, Australia. The band performed their second single "Youngblood" on
The Voice Australia and on
BBC Radio 1's
Live Lounge on 12 June 2018. In June 2018,
Apple Music released "
On the Record: 5 Seconds of Summer – Youngblood", a documentary detailing the band's two-year break and return. To celebrate the release of the documentary, the band held a one-night sold-out show in New York. On 22 June 2018, the band performed on
The Today Show's Summer Concert Series. On 25 June 2018,
Tumblr organized an intimate sold-out show in New York City, as part of its Tumblr IRL event series, where the band performed for their fans whilst they celebrated their album debuting number one in the US. In August 2018, the band released a Spotify-exclusive version of their track "
Lie to Me", along with a cover of Post Malone's song "Stay". In October 2018, the band was featured in an episode of Billboard's Pop Shop podcast, talking about the making of their single "Youngblood", and their upcoming third single "
Valentine". In December, they performed at the
2018 ARIA Awards in Australia, where they won three awards. On 21 December 2018, the band released a rendition of their "Lie to Me" track which featured
Julia Michaels. The accompanying music video for the track was later released on 18 January 2019 and an acoustic version of the single was then released on 1 February 2019, along with the accompanying music video. In December 2018, the band was listed on several Billboard year-end charts, including being named in the Top 10 of the "Top Artists - Duo/Group" chart. The band also made appearances on the "Top Artists", "Hot 100 Artists", and "Top Billboard 200 Artists" charts. The band's third album,
Youngblood, was listed in the Top 100 of the Billboard 200 Albums and Top Canadian Albums charts. The album's single, "Youngblood", was listed in the Top 20 of the Billboard Pop Songs chart, the Top 40 of the Hot 100 Songs, Radio Songs, Adult Pop Songs, Dance/Mix Show Airplay Songs, and Digital Song Sales, as well as making an appearance on the Canadian Hot 100 charts, the Top 100 of the Streaming Songs and On-demand Songs charts. "Youngblood" was the
top selling single in 2018 in Australia and the
Youngblood album was the most-streamed Australian album of 2018. In the 2018
Guinness World Records, 5 Seconds of Summer were named as the most popular group on
Snapchat. "Youngblood" peaked in more than 15 other year-end charts in 2018, was officially certified Australia's 2018 song of the year and won the
ARIA Award for
Song of the Year. 5 Seconds of Summer became the first homegrown act in 13 years to top ARIA year-end tally and remain the second longest stint at number one atop the ARIA chart in history. In 2019, "Youngblood" peaked in more than 10 year-end charts and has since received official platinum and gold notable achievement certifications in over 15 countries. As well as appearing on a multitude of weekly and year-end charts over several countries and receiving multiple certifications, "Youngblood" impacted the ARIA decade-end chart (2010–2019), which ranks the most popular songs of the decade, at number thirty-seven. "Youngblood" was the fourth highest selling Australian single of the 2010–2019 decade. In Australia, "Youngblood" is the eleventh
best-selling single of all time in the country. and is the most streamed Australian song of all time on Apple Music. In February 2020, 5 Seconds of Summer were honored in the
APRA AMCOS' The 1,000,000,000 List, for "Youngblood" having been streamed over 1 billion times. As of May 2020, "Youngblood" has spent over 110 consecutive weeks (over 2 years) in the Top 20 on the ARIA Australian Singles chart.
2019–2022: Calm On 5 February 2019, the band shared teasers for their upcoming single "
Who Do You Love", a collaboration with American DJ duo
The Chainsmokers. The single was released on 7 February, along with the lyric video on YouTube. The song peaked in several countries and weekly and year-end charts, including peaking at number one on the Australia Dance chart In March, the band performed the single, along with The Chainsmokers, on
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and the official music video was released on 25 March 2019. The band later joined the duo on the North American
World War Joy Tour, alongside
Lennon Stella during the last quarter of 2019. The band's performance on tour was very well received by critics, who praised the band for having "captivated everyone's attention" with their "incredible energy" and for "turning the concert into their own as [...] a 5 Seconds of Summer concert with a free EDM show to follow." On 23 May 2019, the band released "
Easier" as the lead single from their upcoming fourth studio album and the first with their new label,
Interscope Records. The song charted in several countries, on both weekly and year-end charts and included peaks at number twelve in Australia, number twelve in the US Mainstream Top 40 and number twenty-seven in the UK. "Easier" was nominated for the ARIA 2019
Song of the Year Award. Billboard included the song on their 100 Best Songs of 2019 list at number 79. The album's follow-up single, "
Teeth", from Season 3 of the
Netflix series
13 Reasons Why, was released on 21 August 2019. The song charted in several countries and included peaks at number fifteen in Australia, and number twenty-one in the US
Mainstream Top 40 In 2020, the song was nominated for the prestigious
Song of the Year award at the
APRA Music Awards of 2020 and won the ARIA 2020
Song of the Year Award. At the end of the decade, 5 Seconds of Summer were named on Billboard's
Top Artists of the 2010s Chart, which lists the most popular and successful artists of the 2010–2019 decade. On 5 February 2020, the band announced their fourth studio album
Calm, and released "
No Shame", the third single from the album, at the same time. On 16 February 2020 the band performed at
Fire Fight Australia, a televised concert at
ANZ Stadium in Sydney raising money for bush-fire relief. Their performance, which included the very first live performance of "No Shame", was widely praised both by critics and viewers and dubbed the "best performance" of the show, with
Billboard writing "They were raised playing stadiums and as such were, perhaps surprisingly, the perfect warm-up act for
Queen -- though such a term diminishes the impact they had in fifteen short minutes." On 21 February 2020, the band released "Old Me", as a promotional single from
Calm, before releasing it to radio as the album's fourth single on 6 March 2020.
. Although the song was given very minimal promotion, it charted in a number of countries, including a peak at number thirty-nine in Australia and number twenty-six on the US Mainstream Top 40. On 27 March 2020, the band released their fourth studio album
Calm. The album was a commercial success and received generally positive reviews from critics who praised the band's artistic growth and maturity. The album charted in more than 25 countries on numerous charts, and debuted atop the charts at number one in Australia, and Scotland. The album peaked in the top 10 on 17 charts, including number two in Mexico and number four in Austria, Estonia, Ireland, New Zealand and Portugal. In the US, due to an alleged shipping error, approximately 15,000 copies of the album were released early, which resulted in
Calm debuting a week early on the
Billboard 200 chart. Had the shipping error not occurred,
Calm would have debuted at number one in the US, earning the band's fourth consecutive number one in the country. Despite the shipping error, the album peaked at number two in the US, earning the band their fifth top 10 album on the
Billboard 200 chart. In June, Billboard named the album as one of the Top 50 Best Albums of 2020 So Far. With
Calm earning the band their fourth consecutive number one in their home country, 5 Seconds of Summer became the second Australian band in history to have their first four full-length studio albums debut at number one on the ARIA albums chart.
Calm remains the best-selling
cassette album of 2020 in the UK. The
No Shame Tour, later renamed the Take My Hand World Tour, was originally set to begin in May 2020 in support of the album, but had to be postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 23 September 2020, Irwin announced the release of his debut solo album, titled
Superbloom, released on 23 October 2020. He is the first member of the band to release a solo project. Irwin stated, "It brings me the greatest joy of all that I am in a band that allows me to create freely inside and outside of it". On 13 August 2021, Hemmings released his debut solo album
When Facing the Things We Turn Away From. On 3 December 2021, in celebration of their ten-year anniversary, the band released the single "2011" as well as
The 5 Seconds of Summer Show - A 10 Year Celebration, an over one-hour long YouTube video that features a mix of live performances, interviews and comedic sketches.
2022–2025: 5SOS5 and solo projects On 2 March 2022, the band released "
Complete Mess" as the lead single from their fifth studio album. The second single, "
Take My Hand", was released on 1 April 2022. On 3 April 2022 the band embarked on the postponed
Take My Hand World Tour, which had originally been planned for 2020. The third single, "
Me, Myself & I", was released on 11 May 2022. In May 2022, the band announced their fifth studio album,
5SOS5, which was released on 23 September 2022. On the eve of the album release, the band performed a concert entitled
The Feeling of Falling Upwards at the
Royal Albert Hall in London alongside a choir and orchestra. The concert was also streamed globally and subsequently available on-demand for three days.
5SOS5 charted in numerous countries, and debuted atop the album charts in Australia, the UK, Scotland, and the Netherlands, and at number two on the
Billboard 200 chart. The album was praised for its lyricism, maturity, and for both paying homage to the band's previous albums as well as experimenting and taking risks. On 30 November 2022, the band started the seven-show Australian leg of the
Take My Hand tour, which ended with two concerts at the forecourt of the
Sydney Opera House on 9 and 10 December 2022. The band would tour internationally throughout 2023 on a run dubbed
The 5 Seconds of Summer Show, which culminated with a performance at
When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas that October. That April also saw the release of
The Feeling of Falling Upwards as the band's third live album. On 1 March 2024 the band released the single "
Lighter", which saw them collaborating with European dance music producers
Galantis and
David Guetta. One month later, in April, Hemmings release his second solo project, the EP
Boy, and would embark on a tour for it later in the year. In July, Irwin would also release his second solo album, entitled
Blood on the Drums. Both Hood and Clifford would follow suit in 2025 by releasing their debut solo albums –
Order Chaos Order and
Sidequest, respectively – within six weeks of one another. Hood's album reached number one on the
ARIA Albums Chart upon its release in June 2025, marking the second member of the band to do so with a solo record after Hemmings achieved the same accomplishment in 2021 with
When Facing the Things We Turn Away From.
2025–present: ''Everyone's a Star!'' On 24 September 2025, the band released the single "
Not OK" as the lead single from their sixth studio album, ''
Everyone's a Star!'', later released on 14 November 2025. A music video for the song was released later on 9 October. The second single, "
Boyband", was released on 16 October 2025. The third single, "Telephone Busy", was released on 23 October 2025. On the same day, the band announced the
Everyone's a Star! World Tour, which began on 26 March 2026 and is set to conclude on 6 November 2026. ==Band members==