The cover of Horan’s new single, “This Town”.
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Miranda

Niall Horan, former member of One Direction, released his first solo single last Saturday under Universal Music Group. The song, titled “This Town,” comes almost a year into the hiatus the band took after releasing their fifth album, Made in the A.M..

Horan released the song over Twitter, tweeting, “Been workin in the studio, wanted to share this song I just wrote with u guys. Thank you for always being there”.

The song itself is a romantic and nostalgic ballad about a childhood love. The main line of the chorus reads, “Everything comes back to you.” Horan has since released a live acoustic version on YouTube.

The response from One Direction fans has been mostly positive and the new song is currently number three on iTunes in the United States. Horan appreciates the positive feedback, tweeting out multiple times thanking his fans for their nice comments. One tweet reads, “Wouldn’t expect anything less from the best fans in the world , xx”

Many IHA students are fans of Horan and have formed their own opinions about the song. Nevena Bozovic’19 says, “I’m just proud of him that he did it on his own. He was never the most popular one in the band, but he was on the top 5 on iTunes for a little while, so I’m proud.” About the song itself, Bozovic says that she likes its style and Horan’s voice and guitar playing together.

Horan has also received support from his fellow band members. All three have tweeted, wishing him luck and offering praise for the song. However, there has been no word from Zayn Malik, who left the band in March of 2015 to go solo.

When asked about a band reunion, Horan seemed certain of it to come. Horan told Z100 radio, “There’s going to be plenty more One Direction tours, that’s a guarantee.”

Check out Niall’s new song here.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNBlfyYHu80

By Kaitlyn Brown’19, Staff Writer