A decade ago, Niall Horan introduced a side of himself that fans didn’t get to see much of during the One Direction days: a vulnerable songwriter behind an acoustic guitar, penning a song about the kind of memories that refuse to stay in the past.
Horan celebrated the 10th anniversary of “This Town,” his debut solo single following One Direction’s 2015 hiatus, in an Instagram post on Tuesday (Sept. 29). To mark the milestone, the singer-songwriter shared a carousel of behind-the-scenes photos and videos from the song’s early days, including a glimpse of how the single’s artwork was captured on a Polaroid camera.
“‘This Town’ was released 10 years ago today. It was the first song I released out on my own and it’s so special to me for many reasons,” Horan began the caption of his post.
When the track arrived in 2016, it stood apart from the maximalist pop productions dominating the charts at the time. Horan specifically reflected on that contrast in his anniversary post, remembering “a lot of big pop songs with big productions” surrounding the song’s release. Instead, “This Town” was structured simplistically, around one voice and an acoustic guitar — a relatively bare-bones introduction to Horan as a solo artist.
Despite its naturalness and simplicity, it didn’t stop the song from making some noise. “This Town” debuted at No. 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 2016, though it had only one day of sales and streaming to be actively counted in its first tracking week. It climbed to No. 25 the following week before eventually reaching its No. 20 peak in January 2017.
The song’s meaning rightfully goes beyond the statistics, according to Horan. The most sentimental part about the track isn’t something that can be measured on a chart. Instead, it’s the sound of hearing fans sing the song back to him years later.
“To reach over a billion streams and see you all singing it back to me all these years later, is absolutely unbelievable,” he continued in his caption.
Horan also teased that he has “a few special things” in the works to celebrate the anniversary, meaning the 10th birthday of “This Town” isn’t quite over yet.
“It was my song and now it’s ours,” Horan concluded, signing off his tribute with a simple, “happy 10 years of ‘This Town.’”
