UK POP SENSATION ONE DIRECTION SET TO PERFORM LIVE AT

NICKELODEON KIDS' CHOICE AWARDS, HOSTED BY WILL SMITH - SHOW FAST TRACKED NEW ZEALAND SCREENS, SUNDAY APRIL 1 AT 6.30PM

 Hot on the heels of making their US performance debut while on tour with Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush, One Direction, who are already an international pop sensation, has been confirmed to perform at Nickelodeon’s 25th Annual Kids’ Choice Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 31st (fast-tracked for New Zealand audiences on Sunday April 1 at 6.30pm, only on Nickelodeon). The band will also shoot hosting spots for Nick, giving viewers exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the boys as they tour with Big Time Rush. One Direction will be sharing stories, secrets and music from the road, on theme with the Nickelodeon original television movie event, Big Time Movie, premiering later this year on New Zealand screens.

“One Direction is performing on the Kids’ Choice Awards for the first time and it’s going to be scream-worthy,” said Paula Kaplan, an Executive Producer of the Kids’ Choice Awards. “While on tour with Big Time Rush, we have seen their popularity explode, and we are excited to introduce them to our audience with exclusive access to the guys leading up to our biggest event of the year.”

One Direction will perform their debut single “What Makes You Beautiful” at the Kids’ Choice Awards, joining host Will Smith for the star-studded event where kids will honour their favourite celebrities spanning the worlds of film, music, TV and sports. The X Factor group's debut single “What MakesYou Beautiful,” recently won a BRIT Award for Best British Single, with the music video garnering over 61 million views on VEVO and more than 132,000 downloads in its first week in the USA. It is also the highest Billboard HOT100 debut for a UK act in over 14 years since the Verve and they are also the last UK group to chart so high since the Spice Girls.

Most recently, One Direction featuring Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan taped an episode of the Nickelodeon hit comedy series iCarly, entitled “iGot Jungle Worms” which is set to premiere in New Zealand in August this year.

One Direction joined Big Time Rush’s “Better With U Tour” on February 24th in Chicago and their US debut kicked-off with the highly successful grassroots BRING1D2US online campaign which saw the band break records with social media platforms Twitition and Twibbon. The campaign engaged thousands of fans across America to complete weekly challenges for a chance to win the Grand Prize of a special 1D event in their city.

Tickets for One Direction’s first New Zealand shows went on sale last Friday. Demand for tickets was so high that another date was immediately added but all three concerts sold out injust 10 minutes.  With 3 million Facebook and 1.77 million Twitter followers, and video views of 56.35million of the 3 times platinum single What Makes You Beautiful video, 20.5million of their latest gold single One Thing and 20.7 million of Gotta Be You, One Direction's New Zealand tour will surely not arrive quickly enough for die hard “Directioners”.

Amongst glittering American nominees like Katy Perry, LMFAO, Taylor Swift, BrunoMars, Kristen Stewart, Justin Bieber, Miranda Cosgrove,  Sofia Vergara and more -- for the first time ever, Nick Australia will produce a local award category as part of the U.S. show: FavouriteAussie Superstar. The nominees battling it out for Favourite Aussie Superstar are Hugh Jackman, ChrisHemsworth, Miranda Kerr and Cody Simpson.

Voting is open onlinenow at http://www.2012kca.com-- so kids,get voting!