Niall Horan is celebrating a decade of “This Town,” the song that introduced his solo career to the world after One Direction’s hiatus. Released on September 29, 2016, the acoustic-led track became the first chapter of Horan’s life as a solo artist and has since surpassed 1 billion streams worldwide.
In a message shared on social media to mark the anniversary, Niall Horan reflected on how different “This Town” sounded from the dominant pop records surrounding it at the time. “I remember a lot of big pop songs with big productions,” he wrote, pointing to the song’s stripped-back construction of one voice and an acoustic guitar as part of what made it stand out.
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That simplicity became central to the song’s identity. Rather than introducing Horan with an elaborate pop production, “This Town” put his voice and songwriting at the front, allowing the nostalgia and vulnerability of the lyrics to carry the record. Horan co-wrote the song with Jamie Scott, Mike Needle and Daniel Bryer, with Greg Kurstin handling production.
The timing also gave the release added significance. “This Town” arrived just over a year after One Direction announced its hiatus in August 2015 and followed Zayn Malik’s “Pillowtalk” as the second solo single released by a member of the group. For Horan, however, the song established a different musical identity, one rooted in acoustic instrumentation and singer-songwriter sensibilities.
Commercially, the debut immediately established Niall Horan as a solo act to watch. “This Town” reached No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, while its live-performance music video was released on the same day as the single. The song ultimately became the lead single from Horan’s debut solo album, Flicker, which arrived in 2017.
A decade later, its biggest achievement is perhaps the way the song has continued to exist beyond its original release. Niall Horan specifically pointed to the experience of hearing audiences around the world sing “This Town” back to him, describing the moment as something he still struggles to put into words.
“To reach over a billion streams and see you all singing it back to me all these years later, is absolutely unbelievable,” he wrote. His message ended with a line that neatly captures the evolution of the song from a personal first step into a shared fan favorite: “It was my song and now it’s ours.”
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