One Direction star Niall Horan just dropped a surprise solo single titled “This Town.”
Horan shocked fans with the release of solo music on September 29, which came after hours of fan speculation when a radio station hinted that Niall would be dropping new music.
“Been workin in the studio, wanted to share this song I just wrote with u guys,” Horan tweeted out to his more than 27.2 million followers, confirming his solo single for the first time.
“Thank you for always being there.”
Horan then included a link to listen to “This Town” on VEVO, which directed fans to a version of the track called “This Town (Live, 1 Mic 1 Take),” which quickly crashed due to the seriously high volume of traffic from Niall’s legions of fans.
WHOA! A nice surprise for @onedirection fans. @NiallOfficial just released his debut solo single #ThisTown . https://t.co/N532UG7OhP
— THE NEW PULSE FM (@TheNewPulseFM) September 29, 2016
Niall’s big solo music bombshell sent shockwaves across social media, as fans posted messages of the support for the Irish singer, who’s now the first member of One Direction to release solo music since the boyband announced that they would be taking a break in 2015.
Horan’s big reveal came just hours after One Direction fans were sent into meltdown prior to Niall’s big “This Town” confirmation, after Radio Disney tweeted — and then promptly deleted — a message claiming that they would be playing the song hours before the One Direction star revealed his new music on social media.
According to Metro , the official Twitter account for Radio Disney sent out a very mysterious tweet in the early hours of September 29, which seemingly confirmed that Horan’s solo music would be hitting the airwaves sooner rather than later.
A screen shot of the mysterious social media message revealed that Radio Disney tweeted out “SURPRISE! Listen to Radio Disney RIGHT NOW to hear @NiallOfficial’s brand new song #ThisTown! Andy stay tuned to hear from Niall.”
The solo music tease from Niall Horan was then promptly deleted from the radio station’s Twitter feed, which sent Niall’s dedicated fans into meltdown.
Horan’s followers started speculating about the boyband star’s solo music on social media alongside the hashtag #ThisTown, where fans questioned about the authenticity of the tweet and speculated on if and when Niall could be about to release his solo music.
“Are the radio stations messing with us or is this for real? #ThisTown” Niall fan @1DAdultFan tweeted out amid the speculation surrounding “This Town,” while Twitter user @ridingljp tweeted out of Horan’s track, “#ThisTown if this is a joke, im going to scream.”
Niall’s big, surprise reveal of “This Town” comes just weeks after it was announced that Horan had signed a solo record deal with Universal music, leaving music mogul Simon Cowell, who managed One Direction after discovering them on The X Factor back in 2008, less than thrilled.
According to MTV , Simon had been attempting to persuade Horan to sign a solo deal with his label SyCo, though Horan was eventually offered more money by the label’s rival.
“This will come as a real blow to Cowell who has been talking to Niall for months, wanting him to sign a deal with his label Syco,” a source told the site of Horan’s solo music deal.
The insider then went on to reveal that Cowell actually “made a number of big money offers to try and persuade Niall to sign up” though Niall eventually decided to sign on the dotted line with Universal after they offered him more cash.
“Universal came in and put even more money on the table,” the insider confirmed of Niall’s big money deal with the music label. “They’re chuffed to have got one over on Cowell and have taken one of 1D.”
What do you think of One Direction’s Niall Horan dropping his first solo single “This Town”?
[Featured Image by Carrie Davenport/Getty Images]