Niall Horan is a true angel. The “Nice to Meet Ya” singer Zoomed with Ryan Seacrest from his home in London to share how he’s helping furloughed music employees amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. The former One Direction member, who was set to tour his sophomore album Heartbreak Weather before the shutdown, is set to perform a ticketed livestream show this November to benefit his touring crew and others who’ve lost work.
Niall shared with Seacrest he’ll be joined by his band on November 7th to perform a set at London’s esteemed venue Royal Albert Hall. The audience-free concert will be streamed globally via four different livestreams set for respective time zones.
“I really wanted to do a gig, especially for the fans because I never got to tour the album,” Niall explained. “… All the money we make from it we can give to the crew and crews alike ... because of the way the government works on the furlough scheme and stuff like that because these guys are self-employed, our crew, they don’t qualify for it. To give you an example, last year in the UK, the live music scene was a $4.5 billion industry and the engine room of that are men and women who wake up at 5 a.m. to build a stage for a show that starts the next evening at 9 p.m. … and they don’t get the credit they deserve so I thought that if the government isn’t going to do anything about it then it needs to come from the artist right now. …They’re the ones with mortgages and families and stuff and when we don’t tour, they don’t work.”
To contribute, fans can buy tickets via Niall’s website at NiallHoran.com.
And while Niall’s been vocal about the pain of releasing an album during “the worst possible time in the history of music in the world,” he’s found solace in his newfound time at home.
“I’ve learned I’m a lot more patient than I thought I was and I’ve just kind of in a weird way enjoyed — apart from the fact that I released an album at the worst possible time in the history of music in the world and the tour got canceled — I’ve kind of got into it and enjoyed the chilled aspect of it and being in the same place for the longest time of my career instead of packing suitcases every 5 minutes.”
The time has also allowed him to “reevaluate and decide” his next step musically and pushed him back into writing. Most recently, Niall teamed up with singer-songwriter Ashe for powerful track “Moral of the Story.”
“She wrote that song and it was out for a while and she was looking for an extra feature and she got in touch,” Niall shared. “It was a tough one,” he added. “I didn’t know whether to do it or not because it was a personal song to her. … I was nervous and I wouldn’t have been sad if she had said no. … [But] it definitely got me excited again after being through the lull of the album coming out at the wrong time and the tour, it popped up at the right time.”
Watch back the full interview above and buy your ticket to Niall’s forthcoming livestream here!