Niall Horan is a singer-songwriter who gained fame for being the cute, blonde, Irish boy in One Direction. Like many other young girls in 2010, I fell victim to choosing Horan as my favorite 1D boy because he was blonde, and my sister had a life-size cardboard cutout of him that still lives in my brain rent-free. Finding out he was a fake blonde broke my heart many years later, but I would never change the choice five-year-old me made. 

Horan appeared alongside Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik on The X Factor. The boy band quickly skyrocketed to fame and stole the hearts of many. They had five albums that were greatly successful before they decided to go on an indefinite hiatus in 2016. All five boys went on to start their solo careers. 

Horan released his debut album titled Flicker in October of 2017. The deluxe version of this album has 13 songs including a  few of Horan’s biggest hits: “This Town” and “Slow Hands.” Singer-songwriter Maren Morris is the only feature on this album with one of my favorite songs, “Seeing Blind.” The album charted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was an amazing start to Horan’s solo career.

Truthfully, I cannot say I became a diehard fan of Horan until 2020 when he released his second album called Heartbreak Weather. There are a total of 14 songs that make up this album. Compared to his debut album, Heartbreak Weather was not as big of a hit. However, I will defend this album until the day I die because it is absolutely perfect. “Put A Little Love On Me” and “Black And White” were both singles that did very well. My favorites from the album are “Still” and “Dear Patience.” Even though some critics may refer to this as his sophomore slump album, I firmly believe Heartbreak Weather deserves more recognition.

In June of this year, Horan released The Show, his third studio album. There are only 10 songs featured on this album, but every single one is a masterpiece. Horan debuted two singles in preparation for the album’s release. “Heaven” and “Meltdown” were both greatly successful and set the tone for the album perfectly. This album is far more intimate than his first two, and it shows Horan’s emotions surrounding growing during the lockdown of 2020. My all-time favorite song by Horan is track four, “Never Grow Up.”

Horan had a seamless transition from being a boy band icon to having an immensely successful solo career. The “Irish Princess,” as some fans like to call him, will likely continue to have a very prosperous career with many more hits. Horan will definitely be around for many years to come, and I will be praying for a 1D reunion while blasting these three albums and dreaming of my “Irish Princess.”