One Direction Fans, Meet X Factor Arabia's 'The 5'

Fangirls and fanboys in the Middle East, watch out. There is a new boy band in town: X Factor Arabia's breakout boy band – "The 5."

With their flashy smiles, sizable biceps and perfectly arranged hair accompanying their stellar singing, The 5 is already garnering a diehard fan base on social media ... and may even fill the void that Zayn Malik's untimely departure from One Direction left in Arab fans' hearts.

But most importantly, we're wondering what to call their new followers...the 5-ers?

The five bandmembers are Egyptian Ahmed Hassan, Moroccan Adel Echibi, Lebanese Kazem Chamas from and the Algerian duo Said Karmouz and BMD (Mohamed Bouhezza). When this pan-Arab group stepped onto the Beirut stage Saturday night, performing live to the local audience and MBC's pan-Arab television viewers, fans went wild.

With the exception of the two Algerian band members, none of The 5 knew each other prior to the competition. After successfully completing the auditions as solo performers, the show's judges gave the boys the option of either continuing as a group or going home empty-handed.

And from there, the comparisons to One Direction were born, thanks to both bands unlikely formation on reality TV. It's the Rolling Stones meet-cute story of the 21st century.

"The best thing for me as a woman is the pleasure of watching young men like you on stage," said Lebanese celebrity judge Elissa following a performance by The 5.

Thanks for that Elissa.

After two years running on the Saudi-owned Rotana and one on Egypt’s CBC, X Factor Arabia relaunched this season on MBC4 and MBC Masr. The program was removed from the other channels’ line-ups due to poor ratings, particularly in comparison to competitors such as Arab Idol and The Voice Arabia .

The judges for this season are Lebanon’s Elissa, Lebanon’s Ragheb Alama and Egypt’s Donia Samir Ghanem. Elissa was also a judge on the previous season but the other two judges are new to the program.

Fans have already created countless fan pages on Facebook and Instagram for individual members and The 5 as a group. And truth be told: We get it. Since everyone is still depressed with Zayn's departure and confused about the future of One Direction, we need a new cult to join anyway.