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Niall Horan Reveals the Song He Wants To See People Audition With on The Voice
Niall Horan will return for Season 24 of The Voice, and he's hoping one ballad from his latest album, The Show, makes it into the Auditions.
Irish singer and songwriter Niall Horan has much to celebrate since his first season on The Voice. Not only did the newbie Coach have a wondrous victory when Team Niall singer Gina Miles won Season 23, but his latest album, The Show, is out now.
The Show, described as a piano-laden lineup of ballads, is Horan’s third solo album, one “heavy on the mellow” and “full of feelings about looking for sanity in a time of personal turmoil,” according to Rolling Stone.
Horan recently sat down with Vulture to discuss the music from The Show and also touched on which song from the new album he wants to hear on The Voice.
What Niall Horan Hopes To Hear on The Voice
Since 2011, Artists on The Voice have come with their most remarkable renditions of our favorite musical hits. Horan said he’d personally love to see an audition with someone singing The Show’s original single “Heaven.”
“I’d like to hear a different take on ‘Heaven,’ ‘cause it’s one of those melodies that can fit into a lot of genres if you wanted to change it up a little bit,” explained Horan.
With Horan on the acoustic guitar, the song was released as The Show’s lead single and has already made rounds worldwide. Horan even performed the single at the White House’s Saint Patrick’s Day event in March, with U.S. President Joe Biden, Ireland’s Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in attendance, just to name a few.
“I’ve done little acoustic moments with it so far, but I’ve kind of kept it similar tempo,” Horan continued to Vulture. “I feel like you could do some cool synthy stuff around it as well. Let’s see what happens in the next auditions!”
How The X Factor Readied Horan for The Voice
Horan got his start when auditioning for the U.K.’s The X Factor when he was just a teen. Back in 2010, then-panelist Simon Cowell (currently an executive producer and Judge on NBC’s America’s Got Talent) nearly didn’t let him pass go. But thankfully, Horan climbed the ranks alongside Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, and Liam Payne to form one of the most successful boy bands of all time, One Direction.
The experience helped shape Horan into one worthy of The Voice’s red Coach's chair.
RELATED: Niall Horan on Whether Blake Shelton Passed the Torch to Him on The Voice
“I’m just glad I enjoyed The X Factor because I see how intense it is now, looking back,” Horan told Vulture. “I was 17, just going around bouncing off the walls. I’m glad I had so much fun when we were doing it, ‘cause I see how intense these young singers are and how nervous they are and how scary of a prospect it is to stand up in front of the nation and give your best version of yourself in three minutes."
Horan said he has “empathy” for Artists on The Voice because of how The X Factor helped catapult him into stardom.
“That’s probably the biggest thing I can help then with, is that navigating a competition is scary," he explained.
Horan said his favorite thing about returning to the realm of singing competitions is that it eliminates the visuals that often accompany music today and becomes “really about the voice.”
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“Why we love music, really, is the songs and the voice, and that’s what I’ve really loved about being on the show,” Horan continued. “Like, Jesus, I forget how little just music we listen to.”
Will Niall Horan Return Next Season for The Voice?
Thank goodness, yes!
Horan will return for Season 24, along with past Coaches Gwen Stefani, John Legend, and Season 23’s Mega Mentor Reba McEntire. It will mark Horan’s second season with the show since now-retired Blake Shelton passed the torch to Horan as part of their hilarious father-and-son style banter.
