From Harry Styles to Niall Horan: Is there life after The One Direction?

The band never broke up, insisting on repeating themselves. Just stopped. and that a reunion, sooner or later, would be “inevitable”.

But in the meantime, (former) One Direction continue to go their own way parallel to the others. Aware of supporting a significant weight (“Boy you’re gonna carry that weight / Gonna carry that weight for a long time”, sang another great UK-made band), Essential. And so as Harry Styles continues to tour the world with his $417 million-grossing “Love On Tour” (equivalent to over 3.1 million tickets sold), the record album features live performances of songs from “Harry’s House”. is the third single after Nam. As 2017 begins and “Fine Line”, Liam Payne mends the pieces of his life following his divorce from Cheryl Cole, a music career on standby and even a mental crisis (in February he took a 100-day break). Abstinence Celebrated), Louis Tomlinson reinvented himself as a festival organizer, “The Away From Home” (which will arrive in Italy on August 19 at the Lido di Camaiore) and Zayn Malik’s previous album “No One Heard”. Has been” planned his return to the scene after two years. Niall Horan doesn’t keep twiddling his thumbs. The 29-year-old Irish singer-songwriter will release his third solo studio album ‘The Show’ this Friday. To prove that yes, there is life beyond One Direction.

The boy band became “history” with the publication of the last video clip seven years ago. The end had already begun a year earlier, with Zayn Malik’s exit from the group in the spring of 2015. The boy band, which was actually no longer as such, but was now aimed at a more adult audience. The album “Made in the AM” took its leave indefinitely by fans: the video for “History” marked the beginning of Simon Cowell’s discography. On the idea of ​​that old fox, having gathered images of history from its birth, the X Factor auditions put together five people – they had introduced themselves in person without even knowing each other – a group. until the very last minute on tour, realizing his potential as

Zayn Malik, moving forward in 2016 with the album “Mind of Mine,” the first solo album by a former 1D, looked to be the first of the five to have a bright future.

But perhaps everyone underestimated the abilities of the good looking Harry Styles of the group. It took a year for the British singer to find a new identity, a new profile, to take on the role of a teen idol. And with 2017’s eponymous debut album, “Sign of the Times,” he stunned everyone by believably flirting with indie and rock: “I didn’t want to write stories, I wanted to write my story, Things happened to me. My main concern was to be honest, which I’ve never done before,” he explained. Robbie Williams has to admit to One Direction’s Harry Styles: “It’s the new me, it shows it has an edge”, the boy band’s former voice crowned on “Could It Be Magic”. If there hasn’t been a One Direction reunion yet, it’s probably because Styles’ solo success hasn’t experienced any downturn in recent years: since “Sign of the Times,” the British singer-songwriter’s triumph Has happened, with over 20 million copies sold and endless tours (there was also cinema in between, going from “Dunkirk” to “My Policeman”, “Don’t Worry Darling”).

If others seem to have lost their way, perhaps unable to bear the weight of a significant past, Niall Horan is the only one who has quietly tried to confront Harry in some way.

“The Show”, the new album, comes six years after her solo debut with “Flicker” (which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, a ranking of the most popular records in the US) and three years after “Heartbreak Weather”. In the record, the singer-songwriter – who joined as a judge on the US version of The Voice – cites Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jackson Browne and other artists from the 60s music scene as sources of inspiration for pop and American music. Combines songwriting. ’70 by Laurel Canyon (incidentally also a source of inspiration for Styles). By her side she has heavyweight hitmakers like John Ryan, Joel Little and Tobas Jesso Jr., who have already signed the single “Heaven,” along with Adele and Sia: “One thing I’ve learned over the years, It is that society likes to pressure us. To make us reach certain milestones by a certain age. Be it marriage or anything else, we should really trust our instincts,” he says. “I’ve tried to let go of those expectations and listen to my heart. The chorus of the song says that everything I currently have in my life is great. It would be absurd to succumb to external pressures and spoil it all. World Tour will take them to Italy to perform for the same date on March 21, 2024, at the Mediolanum Forum in Assago in Milan (tickets are already on sale): “There’s nothing better than answering the crowd for all of you They sing along with the feelings on their faces and knowing that they are connecting the song to something meaningful in their lives. To me, that’s always the best thing you can get in songwriting.”