Kelly Clarkson believes that One Direction have the talent to enjoy success in the music business for years to come.

The global stars were pieced together from solo contestants on the UK X Factor in 2010 and have gone on to achieve worldwide fame since.

Speaking to Yahoo, Clarkson - who won American Idol in 2002 - said that acts coming from talent shows need the singing ability to last in the industry. She said:

"It's funny when people ask 'why do you have longevity when coming from a signing show and other people don't?'. I just think it depends on the artist. I just think the definition of being successful is just that you've got to have the talent to back it up. I think they [One Direction] are all very talented."

Clarkson, who wrote the song 'Tell Me A Lie' for One Direction's 2011 debut 'Up All Night', added that she was initially wary about giving them her song - but after she saw them singing on YouTube, it was a no-brainer. The US star said:

"Before nobody in America knew who One Direction was because they were on X Factor over here [the UK]. I remember getting a call from my publisher and her being like, 'hey there's this group and they were kind of put together by Simon [Cowell] and they're called One Direction and they're kind of into one of your songs,' and I was like, 'Hmm, I wanna hear them'."

Clarkson continued: "Because those are your babies what you write and I Youtubed them and found all these videos of them actually singing live and they're very talented, that's the key thing. That's what I was excited about so was like 'yeah cool, take the song', so they put it on their record and then they started blowing up in America."