One Direction's Niall Horan Gets A Head Start With First Solo Single

The insanely popular boy band One Direction's Niall Horan surprised fans by being the first of the group to launch a solo single after the band went on a hiatus. Relatively lesser-known, the Irish singer beat the more popular band members like  Harry Styles and Liam Payne to sign a record deal and launch his solo singing career .

The 23-year old Horan unveiled his first single 'This Town' on Thursday, tweeting out a link out to his fans via Twitter.  

"Been workin in the studio, wanted to share this song I just wrote with u guys," he wrote. "Thank you for always being there."

The song is available on all music streaming platforms including Spotify and Music with the video being hosted by the music website VEVO.

In a separate statement he confirmed a record deal with Capitol Records USA and thanked his fans.

'I'm excited to announce I have signed a record deal with Capitol Records USA and released my first solo song," said Horan. "Thank you to all the One Direction fans for your love and support as always. I'm looking forward to the next part of this journey together."

The bare-bones black-and-white video  shows the singer player an acoustic guitar and singing a love ballad about a girl he can't get over.  A report in Time called it an emotional track, saying ""This Town" is a lush, guitar-forward ballad in the vein of the band's earlier tearjerkers ("Little Things," anyone?), with hints of Ed Sheeran in the small-town storytelling of the lyrics."

Horan told radio host Ryan Seacrest that the song 'This Town' has a double meaning, and that " people from small towns will understand - that one individual you end up seeing when you're going home or whatever."

He recorded the song with Greg Kurstin Adele's producer and co-wrote it with regular One Direction collaborators Mike Needle, Jamie Scott, and Daniel Bryer.