Niall Horan: ‘Playing festivals is something that has been on my bucket list for a long time’

Irish singer Niall Horan dropped into Magic Radio to chat with presenter Kat Shoob about the release of his new single ‘Heaven’ and his upcoming album ‘The Show’.

“It is one of those albums that will be better live. It has a very live sounding feel to it” said Niall, who also commented to Kat that he felt it was his ‘best body of work’.

Chatting about his previous hit ‘Slow Hands’ the singer admitted that he hadn’t thought that song would be as successful as it became. “When I initially wrote it, I was kind of just like ‘yup onto the next one’. I didn’t really think much of it. And then it just kind of exploded. It was nuts.”

Alongside talking about his new music, the former One Direction member discussed his new role as a coach on The Voice and how having come from a similar show has helped him in the process. Although confessing he ‘never looks back at his audition’ for X Factor joking that ‘his puberty voice wasn’t great’ he does have an insight into the nerves many of the contestants on The Voice have faced.

“That’s been mad interesting especially coming from a show similar,” said Niall. “There are a couple of people who I’ve heard nerves in their voice in their audition, but I still turn as I know that the audition process is tough and where we are in the show right now, I was right, like both of these, these people I have on my team they had nervous auditions and now they’ve become some of the best in the whole thing.”

With his 30th birthday this year Kat discussed whether the singer had any ‘bucket list’ items to tick off ahead of September. “Playing festivals is something that has been on my bucket list for a long time, because remember pop wasn’t a big thing at festivals until about five or six years ago, so in the band we never did them. That’s a huge one for me. I’ve always wanted to do them.”

But sadly, for fans who hoped-for a collaboration with Lewis Capaldi will not be happening soon after the songs they recorded together have been dubbed as ‘not good enough’.

“There is a reason they are not released. We went for a Chinese one night and ended up in the studio and we wrote a tune, and it wasn’t great, well it was decent. It actually is decent, but it is just not to our really high standard,” confirmed Niall.