Last week, I took to Twitter to ask the age-old question: What is the best cover song Niall Horan has ever performed? I was met with a chorus of “this is too hard, they’re all the best!” After some consideration, my followers voted Life in the Fast Lane as the crowd favorite.
Niall’s love for The Eagles and his booming vocals made this a fun and intense experience (and no one will ever convince me that his hip thrusts had nothing to do with this being a favorite as well).
I had never really focused before on just what a range has gone into his choice of songs to cover. That speaks to just how confident he’s become in his ability to not only entertain, but to do so with some very iconic songs. I had the opportunity to submit a question during the Flicker World Tour soundcheck in Detroit and he chose to answer my question (nope, not over it yet). Essentially, I asked him if it was more nerve-wracking to perform his own songs that he put his heart and soul into or perform iconic songs by other entertainers. His answer was in principle that it was the same but different. Performing his songs is like giving a part of himself over to the crowd every night and never being completely sure what to expect. When taking on another artists work, you run the risk of not doing it justice, especially when it’s a song everyone and their brother knows and loves. We’ve seen some covers go very, very wrong and yet in Niall’s case, he seems to have managed to not only do the originals justice, in some cases, but he’s also taken them to a different, beautiful place.
Take for instance his most recent cover of “Circles” by Post Malone. He put his own spin on the sound while mashing it up with “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People. It would have never been anything I could have thought to do and yet it worked seamlessly.
I was also lucky enough to be in the front row for Niall’s Jones Beach FWT show and got to see him take on “New York State of Mind” by Billy Joel. To say that this will probably always be my personal favorite of his covers is an understatement. It’s a song I grew up with by an artist who is unparalleled and if Niall was nervous while covering it, you’d never have known.
So now we want to know, what’s your favorite of his covers? Vote below and we’ll crown the winner next week.
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And is there something you’d love to see him tackle? Let us know in the comments below.